


One 8 to 5 Step at a Time

by Daddy_Clarinetist



Category: Sanders Sides, Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders, Thomas Sanders (Video Blogging RPF) - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Clarinet Virgil, Duets, Instruments, M/M, Marching Band AU, Movie Nights, Mutual Pining, Small ocs to fill in roles, Thomas ships it, color guard thomas, field commander lilly, field commander patton, flute roman, hot days, logan and Patton are already a couple, logan ships it, patton ships it, pit logan, section leader Virgil, section leader roman, solos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-02-09 21:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12896745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daddy_Clarinetist/pseuds/Daddy_Clarinetist
Summary: The marching band AU that nobody asked for. Have fun.Disclaimers: I don’t own any characters (except for my OCs) or anything from the fandom at all. I make no profit out of this.





	1. Chapter 1

Virgil couldn’t help being extremely nervous. It was about halfway through the summer holiday and yet here he was on his way back to the school building. He was going to have to deal with a lot of people, some of which he liked and others he didn’t. He would have to get up early on some days just to make sure he was on time and then put hours into the show. Of course, the fact that he would have to meet and get to know even more new people just added to his anxiety!

  
See, today, Monday, was the first day of marching band practice at Sanders High School for the season. It was already a terribly hot day despite it only being the morning. Luckily for most, the morning practice would be entirely indoors because they were just starting and needed to be introduced to everyone, especially the freshmen. Unluckily for Virgil, he was section leader, so he would have to go out and help the freshmen learn marching basics in the heat during the afternoon.

  
Virgil didn’t exactly know how to feel about being section leader. While he loved the fact that he wouldn’t have to listen to anyone in his group bossing him around (and he’d make sure that he wasn’t as bossy as the section leader was last year), he also didn’t know what to do with all of that responsibility. He would be in charge of leading the sectionals when there was nobody there to help and he would also have to make sure everyone in his section knew what they were doing. Of course, he was the only one who really could have been section leader this year. He was a junior, but there were no seniors in his section and the other junior who was supposed to be there needed to get surgery. Therefore, Virgil was the only upperclassman in the section. Technically second year marchers could become section leaders, but Mr.Mike, the band director, thought that Virgil was the best option. He still had to go through the process of being interviewed and stuff like that for the position, but there was no doubt that he would get it.

  
Arriving at the school, Virgil made sure to park towards the back where he wouldn’t have to be next to too many of the other kids. He grabbed his bag, instrument case, water bottle, and phone and made his way into the band room. The band room was on the side of the school and had its own door from the outside. It used to be an old loading dock in the school, but they turned it into the band room. Stepping through the door, Virgil immediately went to claim his seat at the end of the second row where all of the clarinets sat.

  
Yes, Virgil played the clarinet. He rather enjoyed the sounds it produced and loved to practice on his own. He found it fitting for him to be in the section that couldn’t be heard as well on the field. It was like it was made just for him. He could get away with not playing for a moment and the song wouldn’t be messed up. Getting away with not playing all of the sixteenth notes was easy.

  
Pretty soon all of the seats were filled. Everyone had their instruments out and were playing random tunes. There were groups everywhere talking with those they haven’t seen in awhile.

  
“Hey Virgil!” A voice called out. Virgil turned to his side to see his friend Patton walking towards him. Patton was a junior as well, but he was a field commander. He was one of the field commanders who stood on a side podium because it was his first year as one. An experienced senior gets the middle podium. Virgil and Patton have been friends since kindergarten, and by now they were practically inseparable. Virgil didn’t have many friends or people to count on, but he was sure glad to have Patton as his best friend.

  
“Hi Patton,” Virgil greeted with a small smile, a rarity around anyone else but a usual for Patton.

  
“How has your summer been so far? I’ve missed you so much! I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!”

  
“I just saw you last week, Patton. We were binge watching Voltron at your house, remember?” Virgil asked.

  
“Yeah, but that was forever ago,” Patton pouted.

  
Virgil was going to respond, but suddenly Mr.Mike stepped up the podium, signaling for everyone to sit down and get quiet. Patton waved goodbye to Virgil and headed to the front where the other two field commanders were.

  
“Hello!” Mr.Mike exclaimed when he was sure that he had everyone’s attention. “You all know me from years of being in band, so I don’t need to tell you that I am Mr.Mike. Welcome to marching band new folk, and welcome back returning marchers! I want to have a great season and we’re hoping for another 1 at states. Last year…”

  
Mr.Mike went on to talk about the previous year and all of the good and bad that came out of it. The band had gotten a one at states the year before, so they were all hoping for the same results this year. He then started to talk about some things that were planned that year and all of the forms they needed to turn in (emphasizing the fact that pay to play was due by the first football game). Finally, he gave them the gameplay for the day and dismissed them to go to their sectional rooms in order to introduce themselves to their section.

  
“Clarinets, this way!” Virgil called after he made sure that the clarinet sectional room was the same as usual. He led his group into an art room at the end of the hall that they were allowed to use. He had them all sit in chairs in a circle.  
Virgil counted how many of them were in his section this year. There were no seniors, as there were no juniors last year either. Virgil found that he somewhat missed last year’s seniors. They provided a sense of leadership that he didn’t think he could manage, despite them being bossy. There were a bunch of sophomores. It seemed like at least one of them had decided not to come back for their second year of marching, but there were still about 8 of them. Finally, he found that there were 6 new faces in their group. This seemed like a lot to Virgil because he was in charge of helping them learn.

  
“We’re going to go in a circle and introduce ourselves. State your name, grade, a favorite of yours, and an interesting fact about you. I’ll go first of course. My name is Virgil and I am your section leader. I am a junior and my favorite band is Evanescence. I am the only upperclassman in this section so I guess I’m the one to come to if you’re confused.”

  
“My name is....” the person next to Virgil started to talk, and then they continued around the circle. Somehow at the exact moment they got done with introductions, one of the other field commanders came in and handed Virgil a stack of warm up packets that they would be using the entire season. He also gave him the fight song for everyone. Mr.Mike hadn’t given anyone the list of what part everyone would be playing, so no other songs would be given out.

  
Virgil passed out the packets and the school’s fight song to everyone. He didn’t bother taking one for himself because he still had his from last year. He explained to the group that they played all of the warm up songs except for one of them. That meant they had four songs for warmups. They went through the warmups for the first time and Virgil tried not to cringe when they messed up a rhythm. Finally, as they were finishing up with playing through the fight song, it was time to go back to the band room and attempt to play with the rest of the band. They grabbed the stands that they were using and filed into the band room.

  
“Let’s start with the warmups,” Mr.Mike said when the band was ready. He counted them off for the first one and they started playing. They got through half of it before he stopped them to tell them to play with better tone quality.

  
After warm ups they played through the fight song twice in order to get used to having the roll off from the percussion. Finally, Mr.Mike gave them a final talk for the day and let them end practice. Most of the band left to go home, but Virgil had an hour before he had to go out and help with marching basics. He was planning to spend that hour eating lunch at McDonalds or something, but he was approached by another one of his friends.

  
“Virgil!” Roman exclaimed. “Patton, Logan, Thomas, and I are going to Wendy’s for lunch. You should join us.”

  
Virgil felt his cheeks heat up a little bit. He would never admit it to anyone, but he thought that Roman was sort of...cute. Of course, the fanciful person would never like him, so he just hid his feelings.

  
“Sure,” Virgil said, wanting to spend time with his friends. He may seem like a total recluse most of the time, but he really did like hanging out with the few people he could consider friends. “Are they going to go to marching basics afterwards?”

  
“Well, Thomas has to since he’s in guard and Mr.Bloomer is making the entirety of pit go. Patton has to go as well since he’s field commander. We’re all going to suffer in this heat,” Roman explained. Virgil nodded in understanding. All five of them were juniors, but they were in different sections. Patton, like mentioned before, was a field commander. Logan played in the front ensemble, the pit, so he didn’t march in the show. The percussion instructor, Mr.Bloomer, made them learn since they marched with symbols in pregame and during parades. Thomas was part of the color guard and was the most likely to get a solo performance out of all of them. He was a phenomenal dancer and just the best guard member overall. Roman was the section leader for the flute section. While there were other juniors and some seniors in the flutes, he beat out all of them when going for section leader.

  
Virgil dug in his bag to find his keys, but he was stopped by Roman.

  
“I’ll drive you, Brad Pitiful. It would be easier and use less gas.”

  
Virgil sighed but didn’t argue. He followed Roman to the parking lot and sat in the passenger seat of his car. Soon, they were on their way to the nearby Wendy’s. When they got there, they found that they made it before the others, who Virgil was told were all riding with Thomas. They went ahead and ordered their food-a spicy chicken sandwich and fries for Virgil, a box of chicken nuggets and fries for Roman, and a small chocolate frosty for both of them-and found a booth that could fit five of them. They sat across from each other and started to eat.

  
A few minutes later, Thomas, Patton, and Logan came walking towards them with their own trays of food. Patton sat next to Virgil, dragging Logan down to sit next to him. Thomas sat next to Roman, smiling widely.

  
“It feels good to be back with the guard!” He grinned. “I’ve missed it all year.”

  
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “but I’m not excited for marching basics.”

  
“I am!” Patton shouted. “I’m ready to teach all of the kiddos how to march!”

  
“It’s like 90 degrees out. We’re going to be sweating a lot and might even start to feel sick,” Logan said.

  
“You’ll be fine,” Patton said, leaning in to give Logan a kiss.

  
“Guys, why?” Thomas asked, but not so secretly having an awed look on his face.

  
“Why not?” Patton questioned, smiling at Thomas as he pulled away. Logan had a surprised look on his face, dumbfounded.

  
Patton and Logan have been dating since the end of last school year. Patton had asked Logan out during a movie night that they had. The five of them tended to have a lot of random movie nights, but sometimes only a few of them count make it. Patton only invited Logan over that day so that he could ask Logan out without the others distracting them.

  
They continued eating and talking with each other. When they were done, they threw away their garbage, stacked the trays above the trash can, and headed back to the school.

  
It was time for marching basics.


	2. Chapter 2

Roman smiled to himself as he watched Virgil get out of his car. The boy had a scowl on his face and his normally dark makeup under his eyes was starting to fade, but Roman still found him beautiful. Roman has been crushing on his little ray of darkness for a few years now; ever since the eighth grade when he found somebody trying to pick on Virgil. Roman helped him out and found that he quite liked the boy that he had only considered a friend before. From then on, Roman knew he would do anything for this boy. If only he could tell him how much he pined for him.

  
Getting out of the car, Roman followed Virgil back into the band room. Virgil thanked him for the ride and went to go fill up his water bottle. Roman went towards the shelves on the other room in order to get his instrument put together. He had to use his student flute for marching band because he didn’t even want to take the smallest risk that would ruin his professional one. His student one wasn’t as nice as his professional, but it was still better than some others in his section. It gave a beautiful sound, especially with him playing it.

  
Yes, he had to admit that he was one of the better flute players. He had gotten section leader when most of the seniors wanted it. He had also been first chair in concert band every year they had done chair auditions.

  
A few minutes later Roman made his way to the parking lot on the other side of the school. It was pretty empty in spots because it was the middle of summer and the only other people there was the football team, who was practicing on the turf field in the stadium. Roman placed his water bottle in the shade by the school building. People were starting to make their way to the lines in the parking lot, trying to figure out how to get themselves set up. They couldn’t do much until Roman got his line situated, as the flutes occupied the front row.

  
“Okay flutes, here’s what we need to do! For now, we need to be in a three step spacing. That’s how we’ll normally do marching basics and stretches. I’m going to step you off, so where I land I need one of you to stand right next to me on the line,” Roman explained. He did exactly what he said, taking nearly perfect 8 to 5 size steps. He stopped every three steps in order to make sure his fluties were where they needed to be. Once they were all settled, he took his place all the way to the right of the line.

  
Now that the flutes were in their spots, the freshmen in the rest of the band were able to figure out where they needed to go. They just needed to be in a row behind a flute, either on a line or exactly halfway between. The section leaders at the right of each row made sure that they were exactly halfway if they were not.

  
“Remember, we use the yellow lines on the parking lot, not the white ones. The yellow ones are the same distance apart as the ones on the football field. If you use the white ones, you will be wrong. Also, if there’s a white one between two of the yellow lines, don’t assume that it is the middle because it isn’t,” Roman heard Virgil explaining to his section behind him. The clarinets took up the second and part of the third rows normally, but since it was only freshmen out there today, they fit in one row.

  
Roman grinned when he realized that Virgil would be near him the entire season for stretches and basics. Their spot would be at the end of their line every time because they were the sections leaders, which meant they had good experience and knew the distance it took to get to where they needed for basic 8 to 5 marching. Technically a section leader didn’t have to be at the end of the row, but over the years that was what their sections had ended up doing. The rest of the line would guide to them. He would be able to talk to Virgil while they waited for stretches to start and when the instructor was working with other groups.

  
“Instruments down!” Patton’s voice rang out. They all bent down to lay their instruments on the ground in front of them. Roman told the freshmen how to set their flutes down so that the keys didn’t get bent. He could hear Virgil behind him telling his freshmen to set their clarinet down with the keys up .

  
“But what about my reed?” One clarient asked.

  
“If you’re really that worried about it, which you shouldn’t be, then just twist the barrel so that the reed is facing up,” Virgil sighed, seemingly annoyed.

  
The middle field commander, a senior named Lilly, told them that they would do stretches everyday before practice on the field. They would usually run a lap around the field too, but seeing as they were in the parking lot, they wouldn’t have to do that today. She also explained how the field commanders would count the odd numbers and the rest of the band the evens. They would count to 15 and move onto the next stretch.

  
“Right arm across your chest!” Lily called. “One!”

  
“Two!”

  
…

  
“Fifteen!” The field commanders called, ready to switch to the left arm.

  
“Sixteen!” About half of the freshmen yelled.

  
“Awe!” The upperclassmen said. They were disappointed, but they had been expecting it. The same thing happened each year. “We only go to 15!”

  
Laughter spread out around them as they continued their stretches. Some of them accidently counted until 16 multiple times afterwards, but by the time they were done with “Right leg up!” they managed to all stop at 15. Patton was then in charge of doing neck rolls, or, as he called them, “rolls of the neck.” They did them in both directions four times around and then stopped.

  
“Next we do jumping jacks,” Lilly explained. “One of us will pick one of you and whoever is picked will choose the number of jumping jacks we do. We will do that number together and we all have to stop at the same time. If even just one person accidently does another jumping jack, or even flinches into half a jumping jack, they will have to do the number on their own. Then, we will all do it over again. Understand? Good. I don’t know names yet for you freshmen, so I’ll pick an upperclassman so that you can see how it works. Now...Thomas! How many jumping jacks?”

  
Roman let out a small sigh of relief. He knew that Thomas wouldn’t want to do 20 jumping jacks like some people would pick, but he also wouldn’t pick just like 2 or 5 and not let them have a good workout. He’d pick a good number.

  
“11!” Thomas shouted. Roman took back what he said about Thomas picking a good number. While it wouldn’t tire them out and also wasn’t really small, it was a number most people wouldn’t normally stop at. He could tell that they would have to do them over again, especially since it was the first time doing it for the freshmen.

  
“Ready! Begin! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Eleven! Stop! Oop, do it again!” Lilly called. The entire band groaned and looked around at all of the people who messed up doing it on their own. There were about six of them who messed up, surprising Roman because he expected more. Once they were done, they went to do the jumping jacks again as a group. Once again, they failed. The band ended up doing 11 jumping jacks 4 times, a total of 44 jumping jacks. When they finally got it on the fourth time, they all clapped.

  
“Finally, we do calf raises. We will usually do two sets of 8, one set of 16, and one set of 32, but since it’s your first day we will only do the two sets of 8,” Lilly explained.

  
When they were done with stretches, they were allowed to get water. They also had to put their instruments to the side, as they would learn to march without them at first. After they got back into the block, Mr.Morrison, the guy who would teach them to march and help them all season, walked over with a gock block and a drumstick in his hands. He introduced himself and told them that he expected them all to suck today, making them all laugh.

  
Mr.Morrison showed them how to do a power triangle, a formation they had to hold their hands when marching without their instrument. He explained that when they had their instrument, they would stand in what was called “set.” This was how they would hold their instrument when it was down and they were not playing. For the flute and clarinet, they just had to hold their instruments perpendicular to the ground and have the top be about eye level with them. Then, he continued to teach them some things about marching.

  
He showed them all of the different positions they had for holds and standby. First position was where they stood with their heels together and toes apart at 10 and 2 o’clock. Second position required them to stand with their feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Third position had them standing with the heel of their left foot to the side of the toes of their right foot, still at 10 and 2. Fourth position just had them step forward with the left foot from third position while fifth was just a step back. After that, he taught them parade rest, where they had their right hand at their side and would have their instrument parallel to the ground. The left hand would be in a fist behind their back. Their head also tilted towards the group. They would go from this position to set before they started marching in parade block or before pregame. The command that brought them to that position was “Band ten hut!” said in time, while the band would go to set the beat right after the “hut.” They also had to shout “HUT!” as they moved to set.

  
Soon, they began to learn how to march forward one step. That led to them marching forward two steps, then four, and finally eight. They even started to learn to march backwards. They finished with trying to march backwards eight steps about ten minutes before practice was over. For the next eight minutes, they went over what they did that day. Mr.Morrison had them go to each position as he called them out.

Finally, Mr.Morrison taught them something he called “body breakdown.” They would slowly bend their body down, going from the head, shoulders, upper back, lower back, to the legs. Then they would reverse the order back up. When they got back to the head, they had to go up on their toes to get as high as they could. They had to “check their chins,” meaning they put their thumb to the top of their chests and then their index finger under their chin. In marching band, they had to look up and not at the ground, so checking their chins showed where their head should be.

When they were done with body breakdown, practice was over. Everyone grabbed their instruments and water bottles and headed back towards the band room. As Roman was walking back, Patton and Logan caught up to him.

  
“Hey, Roman!” Patton greeted him. “Wanna come over to my place this weekend for a movie night?”

  
“Want to,” Logan sighed, but smiling a little because it was Patton.

  
“Viiiiirgil is coming!”

  
“Virgil always goes,” Roman said. “And of course I’ll go too. When have I not for no reason?”

  
“Great! But I knooooow that Virgil not going would be a good reason for you not to go. You like him!”

  
Roman spluttered, “What?! Why would you think that?!”

  
“Well, it’s kind of obvious,” Logan explained. “You blush around him and you tend to try and impress him a lot. Anybody could see that you like him.”

  
“A-Anyone?” Roman croaked.

  
“Well, obviously not Virgil. He’s pretty vigilant, but when it comes to feelings he denies that anyone could have any kind of romantic want for him.”

  
Roman frowned at that, knowing how wrong Virgil was. Roman had all kinds of romantic feelings for him! If only he could prove that to him. However, he was slightly nervous.

  
“You should confess to him!” Patton said. “You could do it during our movie night this weekend.”

  
“Maybe one day I will, but it can’t be during a movie night. We do those kind of things all the time, so it wouldn’t be special,” Roman said.

  
“Well, you should still do it soon,” Patton urged. “I want you both to be happy.”

  
“How do I know if he even likes me back?” Roman asked.

  
“Well, he never really hints at liking anyone, but I do feel like he has some kind of liking towards you. While he does get frustrated with you a lot, he doesn’t always seem as annoyed as he wants us to believe,” Logan told him.

  
“Ugh, but I really don’t want to ask him and ruin our friendship if he says no,” Roman frowned.

  
“I think you should go for it!” Patton grinned. “We can even help you figure out a great way to do it!”

  
“Oh? How so?” Roman questioned.

  
“You could ask him during a band competition,” Logan suggested.

  
“Or at our first football game,” Patton added. Suddenly, his face lit up. “Yes, do it the first football game that our team wins! That way, as everyone is cheering, you could confess! And then, you wait to see if we get a one at any of our competitions, and if we do, you kiss him! That would be the perfect first kiss!”

  
Roman was surprised that Patton was coming up with so many romantic ideas. It was usually Roman who considered himself the romantic one.

  
“Please confess soon,” Patton begged. “You both seem so lonely sometimes. I know that you would make each other happy. I can see the way you look at him sometimes and I do think that he likes you too, even if he doesn’t show it as much.”

  
Roman sighed, knowing that Patton would keep on him about it. He really did want to ask Virgil out, so maybe it really wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe he would even agree.

  
“I’ll think about it,” Roman told Patton. Patton cheered, gave him a hug, then pulled Logan towards the band room door.

  
“See you this weekend! I’ll text you more details,” He called on his way out. Roman waved, smiling to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up the title for the show music. I’m sorry, but there’s not actually a marching band show anywhere for this, as least not from what I’ve found. Also, I picked the stand tunes based off of the sides’ answers in the Q&A video and I’m perfectly aware that they don’t exactly have actual stand tunes written for them. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The next day went as smoothly as the first. They had their indoor practice in the morning where they got some more pieces and learned some stand tunes. They still didn’t have their show music yet, but Mr.Mike promised that he would have it ready by Thursday. That was two days away and most of the kids didn’t want to wait that long, but they would have to deal with it.

  
Marching basics also went well again. The first years learned a lot more techniques and the upperclassmen were surprised on how well they were getting the hang of it. Of course, they were nowhere near perfect. As Mr.Morrison said, they were “almost not horrific.”

  
Wednesday was very uneventful in the morning, as it seemed to go just as it did the first two days. They practiced the music that they had received the days before and tried not to cringe when somebody got it tragically wrong. The section leaders had also been given a list of who would play which part, so they were able to pass out the Alma Mater and Star Spangled Banner. Then, in the afternoon, the entire band went out for marching basics, not just the first years. Everyone needed some refreshers since half of them had forgotten what a tondu even was. Upper bodies looked terrible, so Mr.Morrison had them keep turning themselves to the side without moving their lower body. He had this long metal pole that he used to see if their shoulders were straight, using it to move them if they were wrong. He first made them do it with their arms straight out to their sides, then with a power triangle, and finally holding their instruments.

  
Virgil found that his section annoyed him less this year than it did last year. The seniors the previous year were very bossy and rude to them, making him hate sectionals with a burning passion. He did miss the leadership qualities they had, but he aspired to be a better section leader so that the other clarinets would not hate coming to band. He may have been an anxious mess, and yes he tended to be negative, but he didn’t want to ruin one of his favorite things for others.

  
It was after practice on Wednesday, and Virgil, Roman, and Patton were at a small park that was nearby. They were sitting on the swings, talking to each other. Logan and Thomas both had to go home, so it was just the three of them. Patton was swinging very high because he loved being on the swings. The other two were swinging slightly, but they were more focused on what they were talking about.

  
“Oh, I wish I could remember more about the show music from when we listened to it last year in class!” Roman cried out. Virgil could tell that he desperately wanted to know what he would need to play. He would admit that he was curious as well.

  
“I wasn’t at school the day you all listened to the recording of the show. I was sick, remember?” Virgil commented.

  
“Oh yeah! That really sucks because I do remember it being really cool. The first movement is really intense and dramatic, but then it gets really calm and peaceful during movement two. Movement three goes back to the intensity. I can’t remember what it was called though. It really fit with the music, I believe,” Roman explained.

  
“Do you remember hearing any of the solos?” Virgil asked. He had been worrying over that for a while now, even though he knew that he probably shouldn’t be. The clarinet section was usually the forgotten group, so he doubted that there would be a clarinet solo.

  
“I know that there was a duet with two instruments in movement two. I can’t remember what the second instrument was though because I could only concentrate on the flute playing.”

  
“Yeah!” Patton confirmed as he was going back and forth on the swing. “You should try out for the flute solo, Roman! You would be perfect for it!”

  
“I will!” Roman agreed. “But Patton, since you’re field commander and all, have you seen the sheets?”

  
“I’ve seen some of it. I know that there definitely is a duet, but Mr.Mike told me not to say too much. It should be a surprise for everyone.”

  
“I hate surprises,” Virgil muttered.

  
“I love them!” Roman exclaimed. “Oh, I just can’t wait until tomorrow! I really need to see the music. I want to play it right away!”

  
As Roman fantasized about what the next day would bring, Virgil found himself admiring the princely boy. Roman was so confident in everything he did and he always had a smile on his face. He was the opposite of Virgil. He was what Virgil wished he could be. He viewed Roman as almost perfect, something he could never be. It upset him, but also made him feel want for the boy.

  
Patton dragged his feet on the ground, prompting his swing to stop moving. He turned to them, the grin he always seemed to have still there. “It’s very hot out, isn’t it? Maybe we should go inside somewhere.”

  
The other two nodded in agreement. They all stood up and headed towards the Dairy Queen that was across the street from the park. When it was marching band season a lot of their savings seem to end up going towards Dairy Queen, but that was because it was the closest restaurant to the school and didn’t require a car to get to. The three of them ordered their favorite ice cream and sat down in the back. They ended up talking for a while before they all decided to go on home.

  
…

  
Soon, it was the next day. The schedule would be the same as before, but everyone was much more excited that day. It was time for them to get show music. Some of them were excited, knowing that they would get an easy part. Others were nervous about whether or not they would get first part or not. Some knew for sure that they would and grew anxious over the fact that they would be playing the harder parts. All of them were scared to see what they would have to memorize.

  
Virgil walked into the band room that day with a strange feeling of dread. He didn’t know why, but he felt like something bad was going to happen. It had something to do with the music they would get today. Suddenly, he felt a lot more fear over getting the show music than before.

  
They started out in the band room as a whole. Mr.Mike wanted them to warm up and practice some of the songs they got the first few days so that they could focus solely on the show music when they went in for sectionals. They started with their warm up packet, managing to do most of them fairly well. They also played the fight song and learned where a part in it called “tag” was. It was a small section of the song that they would play whenever the football team did anything noteworthy, such as get a touchdown. They also played Star Spangled Banner, which was very cringey near the end when they played the second to last fermata. It was very high pitched, especially for the first clarinet part. However, it wasn’t as bad as the school’s Alma Mater. Virgil wanted to throw his instrument across the room when they played that. He had to play notes higher than the flutes at times and it was not pretty. It was very funny to watch the other surrounding sections’ reactions, though.

  
After playing through those pregame pieces, they played some of the stand tunes. For time outs, they were going to have to play Comfortably Numb, All I Do is Win, I am the Walrus, and Virgil’s personal favorite, I’m Not Okay (I Promise).

  
When they were done playing stand tunes, Mr.Mike let them go to sectionals. He had everyone else start to go to their sectional areas but had the section leaders meet him in the front.

  
“I’m going to pass out the stacks of sheet music for the show. Make sure each person gets the part that was assigned to them. It’s the same as what is written on the sheet I handed out earlier this week. Also, I need to talk to Roman, Christina,” (the trumpet section leader), “and Virgil,” Mr.Mike told them. He passed out the stacks of sheet music to each section leader, not noticing the look of terror on Virgil’s face. Once the others were gone, the three he wanted to see approached him.

  
“You wanted to talk to us?” Christina asked.

  
“Yes! I need you to look at your music please. Roman and Virgil, please look at the second movement in the middle and Christina please look at the third movement. These are where the solos are. The first movement has some percussion solo stuff near the beginning, but Mr.Bloomer will take care of that. Then, in movement two, there is a clarinet and flute duet! There is also a trumpet solo in movement three. I need you to tell your section that those with at least two years of marching experience may audition,” Mr.Mike said.

  
Virgil was staring wide eyed at the music in front of him. There was a clarinet solo, and not even just a short one. It started in the middle of movement two and continued on in spots until the end.

  
“Wait,” Virgil said, looking over at Mr.Mike, “at least two years experience? But I’m the only one in my section with that much experience!”

  
“Yes,” Mr.Mike said, “well, you’re always first chair and you’re a very good player, so I knew that you would be able to play it. I am not worried about you not being able to play it.”

  
“But what if I don’t want to?” Virgil asked. “What if I can’t do it?”

  
“If you are very strongly against it, then I can see about having a sophomore play it. Do you really want to let a sophomore play something that you are fully capable of playing, though?” Mr.Mike asked him. He knew that he had Virgil. The dark clarinet player had some pride and wouldn’t want to be beaten out by those who technically wasn’t allowed to play it. Mostly, though, he would feel very embarrassed about it, and he didn’t want that. He knew that he was going to end up being the one playing that solo. To most people, that would have been an accomplishment, a dream come true. To Virgil, it was a nightmare.

  
“Don’t worry, Virgil!” Roman said as he threw an arm playfully around his shoulders. “I’m going to be fighting hard for that flute solo, so maybe we will be the ones playing the duet together!”

  
Virgil felt his cheeks heat up at both the thought and of Roman’s arm being around his shoulders. He looked over at Roman, knowing that the Fanciful Flute™ could see the red on his cheeks. This made him even more flustered.

  
Roman’s face turned pink as well when he saw Virgil. He wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction from him. Virgil was always stoic and uncaring, but Roman found that he liked seeing the emo like this. If this was the way he reacted when he just mentioned playing a duet with him, then he would really have to get the chance so that he could see this more often. He really wanted to play this duet with Virgil.

  
They quickly headed back to their sections so that they could pass out the music and get sectionals started. The instruments with solos got an explanation of what was to happen. Most of the upperclassmen got excited in those sections while the lowerclassmen were somewhat disappointed. Virgil was telling his section the news when all of them started to cheer him on, telling him that they thought he could do it. He never really got praise like that, so he didn’t know what to do. They all seemed so...supportive. It was weird, but it did make him like his section a whole lot more.

  
Looking at the show music, Virgil felt a connection to the title.

  
“Personality Flawed”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is their movie night. It really doesn’t have anything to do with marching band, but I wanted to write some cute stuff like this and not deal with explaining all of the terms and things we do in band. 
> 
> This is the fourth chapter I’ve uploaded today. I got five chapters written before I decided to start posting. I’m going to read through and try and fix mistakes in chapter five now and then post it. It’s a lot longer than the past chapters because it has to do with band camp. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It was the weekend and the five friends were all at Patton’s house. They didn’t have band the day before, so they got a nice relaxing Friday off. Now they were able to be loud and have fun at Patton’s place. They started the day by sitting around and eating food while talking.

  
“I love marching band and all, but all of the sudden responsibility I have gained is stressing me out,” Virgil said. “I actually have to leave my house now and interact with people.”

  
“You do that with us all the time,” Patton pointed out.

  
“Yeah, but you guys are cool. I can’t stand many others and they don’t really like me either. If I’m not with you, then I am 99% likely to be in my house.”

  
“People like you more than you think,” Roman told him. “I mean, look at your section. They love you so much! The freshies adore you.”

  
Virgil couldn’t deny that his section seemed to enjoy being around him. He was glad it was that way too, or else he wouldn’t be looking forward to the season at all. He just hoped that he could continue to be likable and not find a way to ruin it.

  
“Hey, who wants to play some games before we watch movies?” Patton asked.

  
“What kind of games?” Logan questioned.

  
“We should play some video games!” Thomas exclaimed.

  
“Or we could possibly play some board games, as they can be just as fun,” Logan said.

  
“Let’s play Mario Kart on Patton’s Wii!” Roman suggested. They all agreed on this since they all loved Mario Kart. This included Logan, as Mario Kart was one of the few video games he could stand.

  
They all picked their cars and their characters. Since only four people could play at a time, they would switch out after each game was over with, the loser having to give their spot to the one waiting. Thomas decided to sit out first, but he didn’t mind. He loved watching how competitive his friends could get.

  
Roman picked to play as Princess Peach, of course, feeling a deep connection with them “both being royalty.” Patton picked Yoshi since it was his absolute favorite character. Virgil chose to play as Bowser since he felt that he could relate. Finally, Logan wanted to play as the smartest one, so he chose his own Mii instead of an actual character.

  
“You’re so lame,” Roman said as he saw Logan choosing his Mii. Logan just shrugged, not caring.

  
“I think it’s cute!” Patton proclaimed.

  
“Let’s just start the race,” Virgil interrupted, wanting to win already.

  
Once they were all ready, the race started. They were going to take turns picking the courses. Patton went first since it was his game, even though he insisted on going last. He decided that he wanted to play Sherbet Land because it reminded him of the ice cream. He was determined to win, however was beaten out by Roman (who came in first) and Virgil (who came in second). He didn’t let it get to him, though. Logan got 9th place, still needing a moment to get used to playing the game again.

  
Next it was Logan’s turn to choose. He picked Delfino Square because he quite liked the setting. He didn’t mind the fact that he wasn’t the best at the game, so he didn’t say anything when he came in 6th place. Patton actually won this round with Roman in second and Virgil in third.

  
Roman chose the next course, confident that he could beat them all at Bowser’s Castle because, well, it was a castle. However, he couldn’t have known that Virgil would hit him with a red shell the second before he crossed the finish line, causing him to snatch first place. While Roman was recovering from the shell, Patton passed him up as well! Roman came in third, not as a happy camper. Logan found himself getting 4th place, beating all of the computer players.

  
Finally, it was Virgil’s turn to pick. He had to choose well because, coincidentally, he, Roman, and Patton were all tied for first place. He really wanted to win. It was a good thing he knew just the course to pick; a course he has mastered and knew the others hadn’t.

  
He clicked on Rainbow Road and laughed evilly as those around him groaned.

  
“Why did you have to pick that one?” Roman asked. Virgil just smirked at him.

  
They were soon off on the race, all of them trying their hardest. Too bad for three of them their hardest was absolutely terrible. The race had just started and Roman had fallen off the edge three times already. Logan thought that he was starting to get the hang of it when one of the computer players bumped into him and knocked him right off. Patton was having a little bit less trouble, having played the course more times since he loved the colors.

  
In the end, Virgil came out victorious, having finished the race while the others were still on their second lap. He watched amused while Roman continued to fail miserably. Patton managed to scrape up 7th place, not the worst place to be in but definitely not the best. Logan somehow made it in 10th place, having beat Roman and one of the computer players. Roman, however, looked on helplessly as he came in last, not even able to cross the finish line.

  
They looked at the final scores and saw who came in what place out of the four of them, not including the computer players. The scores left Virgil in first place with 52 points. Patton came second with 42 points. Roman, who was still upset with his huge defeat in the last round, came in third with 38 points. Logan came last with 19 points. The others gave him pitying looks, but he didn’t mind. He just handed the controller to Thomas and sat back to watch the next game.

  
They continued playing Mario Kart Wii for a while, different winners coming up each time. They stopped playing when it started to get a bit later so that they could start their movie night. Patton went to go make popcorn in the kitchen, Logan following along to help grab drinks and other snacks. Thomas and Virgil gathered a bunch of blankets and pillows and brought them in the living room. They even added a few of Patton’s gigantic stuffed animals to the pile since they were so fluffy and warm.

  
Roman went to Patton’s room in order to grab all of the movies. He got Patton’s DVD album that had all of his movies in it from his desk. He also grabbed the Disney movies he brought with him, as well as the movies the other three had told him to grab that they had brought.

  
Once they were all back in the living room, they gathered around the large pile of DVDs they had. There was a mixture of everything, but most of them were some type of Disney or Pixar movie. Virgil had a love of DreamWorks movies, so he had brought a bunch of those with him.

  
“Let’s pick out all of the movies that we want to watch now and plan out the order in which we play them. It would make it easier. Plus, it’d be very organized and we could put all of the others away,” Logan said.

  
“Let’s all start by picking a movie we want to watch. We can probably get away with watching at least five movies. We have all night to watch them,” Roman suggested.

  
They all went through all of the movies they had and picked out the ones they really wanted to watch. They presented their movies to the group and they agreed on all of them. It helped that they all had similar tastes in movies. Thomas gathered the movies once they put them in order and went to put the first one in. Virgil helped Roman take the rest of the movies back to Patton’s room.

  
“Quick!” Patton whispered to Thomas and Logan. “Let’s sit on the longer couch so they have to sit on on the smaller one together!”

  
The three of them sat on the larger of the two couches in Patton’s living room. Patton and Logan immediately cuddled up next to each other, leaving Thomas to awe at them from the other side of Patton. Thomas smiled as he got comfortable, putting the footrest up. They were all gathered under a bunch of blankets, and Patton even included one of his stuffed animals in his cuddling with Logan.

  
When Virgil and Roman walked back in, they noticed right away that the only seats left were on the smaller couch. Neither of them wanted to sit on the floor since it would get uncomfortable after a while, but they were also too nervous to lay next to each other.

  
“Are you guys going to join us?” Thomas asked.

  
“Uh, yeah!” Virgil replied quickly, trying to ignore the fact that he would have to sit very close to his crush. He grabbed a few pillows and blankets from the floor and set them up on the couch for both of them to use. As he was doing so, Roman gathered a large stuffed alligator and approached the couch. As Virgil was settling into his spot, Roman sat down next to him, pulled a few blankets on top of himself, and sat the alligator across both of their laps. He knew that Virgil liked to cuddle into soft things, even if he wouldn’t admit it himself.

  
Virgil was very aware of the fact that the two of them were sitting thigh to thigh on the couch, their shoulders slightly touching as well. He wanted to move away so that he wouldn’t embarrass himself, but he forced himself not to. There wasn’t enough room to sit farther apart anyway, not unless they removed most of the blankets and pillows, which they were unwilling to do.

  
“Oh yeah, there are some snacks on the table there for you guys,” Patton told them, pointing to the table right next to their couch. Roman was closer so he grabbed the popcorn bowl first and put it next to him and Virgil on top of the alligator. He also handed Virgil a bottle of pop and a bag of chips.

  
Once they were all ready, Thomas got up to press play on the VCR, as the first movie they were playing was on a VHS tape. It was Roman’s pick. He wanted to watch Snow White because it had been so long since any of them have seen it. He never got around to getting it on DVD since he already had the VHS tape.

  
They started the movie and enjoyed themselves. Roman sang along with all of the songs, the others joining in every now and then. Logan even sang a few verses. They all laughed when Virgil suddenly went “HI HOOOOOOOOO!” They echoed him with their own “hi ho,” as it did in the song.

  
They watched Patton’s movie next. He picked Hotel for Dogs because of how many dogs were in the movie. He spent the entire time fanboying. After that, they watched Wall-E because Thomas was really in the mood for it. Logan wanted to watch Iron Man afterwards. While the unrealistic aspect of the movie annoyed him, he did enjoy watching Tony Stark being a genius. He could relate.

  
They ended their movie night with Virgil’s pick. He had been tempted to pick Shrek, but he knew many jokes would be made so he went with one of his favorite movies: Rise of the Guardians. It was very dark out now, so the only light came from the TV.

  
Virgil got through most of the movie, but towards the end he was starting to get very tired. His eyelids kept wanting to close and send him to dreamland, but he was determined to finish the movie. Alas, he could not defeat his eyelids, as they shut their doors and never opened again that night. Virgil was aware that he was leaning slightly to his side, but he couldn’t care less at that point.

  
Roman looked over in surprise when he suddenly felt weight on his left shoulder. He found that Virgil had fallen against his shoulder as he succumbed to sleep. Roman shifted so that they could both be more comfortable and rested his head against Virgil’s. He rested an arm around the sleeping boy, smiling in content. Quickly, he fell asleep as well.

  
When the other noticed the position they were in, they cheered quietly. Patton was trying not to squeal. They looked so cute cuddled up, so he grabbed his phone and took some photos.

  
“We can use those as blackmail later,” Thomas whispered. Patton giggled, but shook his head.

  
“We can make a slideshow for their wedding and use it as the title slide.”

  
…

  
In the morning, Virgil woke up to a warm feeling. He didn’t understand at first, but he soon realized that he was cuddling with Roman! He gasped as he saw that Roman was hugging him in his sleep. Roman’s face was pressing against Virgil’s hair as Virgil was lying slightly against his chest. Virgil’s face turned a deep red, getting redder as he felt Roman start to move a little, indicating that he was waking up.

  
“Hmmm?” Roman hummed, disoriented from just waking up. His eyes opened, making eye contact with Virgil. His face turned a similar color of red as he noticed the position they were in. They both quickly pulled away, muttering apologies to each other. They agreed to never talk about it, but they both knew that they would always be thinking of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a giant stuffed alligator too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s band camp. Also, the soloists are announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than others and I still think that band camp isn’t truly represented in this. Oh well, I tried. It took a lot of work to write this.

A few weeks have gone by since the beginning of the marching band season. Things were going pretty well with only a few difficulties here and there. The second week they were able to start using their marching field. The grass was mown and fresh yard lines and hashes were painted on. They had some days of marching basics on the field, but the Thursday of their second week was finally spent getting some drill for their show. The sections leaders had to come in early that day in order to lay down the chips. These chips were small, white squares that were nailed in the ground every four 8 to 5 steps in order to help them learn where their spot was on each set. The freshmen learned how to read their charts and how to find their dot. The dots each had a number, meaning every person had a number.

  
Virgil’s number was 18, the first number to be associated with the clarinets. There were 17 flutes so they got the first 17 numbers. Roman was number 1, of course, being section leader and all.

  
The sets also showed where the props would be for their show. They had no idea what the props looked like yet, but Mr.Mike explained a little bit about them. There would be 5 props set up in the back of the field that would sit behind where they march. They would be painted to show certain things clashing, such as somebody’s personality would, since the show was called “Personality Flawed.” It would feature thunderclouds along with sunshine, bring colors against dark. The color guard would also be able to hide their flags behind these props in order to make the designs on the flags more of a surprise.

  
Then, towards the side of the field, there would be some wooden boxes that some people would be able to step on at certain points of the show. There was going to be a larger one surrounded by four slightly smaller ones in front of it where the judges could see. The smaller ones would be painted some bright colors, while the larger one in the middle would be splattered with those colors combined. There would be a microphone set up on the larger one, making everyone figure out that that was where the soloists would probably end up being placed.

  
However, that was all figured out the week before. It was the week of July 24th; the week of Band Camp. The weather was going to be hot, there would be multiple water breaks, and band would be all.freaking.day. The only ones looking forward to it were the freshmen because they hadn’t experienced it yet. They would change their minds by the end of the first or second day.

  
Roman felt dread fill him, an unusual feeling for him. He loved marching band and all, but Band Camp was too much. He knew the importance of it, but that didn’t make him want to do it anymore than he already had. He knew that he would spend half of the day miserable in the heat.

  
Some schools went to other places for Band Camp, but Sanders High School Marching Band had it at their school. It was convenient because they could sleep in their own bed, know exactly where to go each day, and saved them a lot of money. It was a lot easier.

  
The schedule each day was the same. In the morning they would have a short session of marching basics. It would also be spent doing some drill stuff when basics were over. Then, they would head off to lunch at about 11. At noon, they would start their sectionals, run by somebody actually qualified to teach them instead of the section leaders running it. After that, they had to go back outside to work hard on learning and getting down the drill. They would even start to put music to it. Dinner came next, the last part of the day that everybody had to be present. They were allowed to go home after that, but Monday through Thursday had evening activities that they could participate in. Monday was water games, Tuesday was a movie, Wednesday was at the Sanders Town pool, which was walking distance away from the school, and there was a scavenger hunt on Thursday. Also, on each day the seniors wore outfits for different themes.

  
The week before, they held auditions for those going after the solos. Virgil felt sick when he saw that he was the only one auditioning for the clarinets. Mr.Mike said he had played the solo very well, but Virgil thought it was terrible. Either way, he had to go ahead and tell Mr.Mike his number on the field so that the drill writers could put him where he needed to be for the solo.

  
There were four flutes trying to get that solo, Roman being one of them. They played for Mr.Mike one at a time, getting more nervous each time they made a mistake or heard one of the others play it very well. Roman was confident at first, but he had no idea who would be picked for the solo. He felt that he played it strongly, having the right dynamics and the correct articulations, but they could always have been better.

  
The results for the soloists would come on the first day of band camp. They were all very nervous about it. The people from the other sections were jealous that Virgil had already been chosen since he was the only clarinet who did it, but Virgil felt that their jealousy was dumb.

  
On the first day, all of the upperclassmen came in with frowns on their faces, already done despite it not even starting yet. They scoffed as the freshmen talked around them about how excited they were for the week.

  
Getting their instrument together, they all headed their way out to the practice field. Most walked with a small group of friends. Roman walked with Thomas, who waited for him while he grabbed the speaker that would go by the back podium for the metronome. There was a signup sheet for people to sign up to help with bringing stuff out every practice. Roman signed up for the back speaker because he felt that he should help. Somebody would bring out the front speaker that went up on the tower where Mr.Mike would usually be, the yard markers, the giant water jugs for water bottle refills, and the four podiums. The two side podiums were brought out by the two field commanders who would use them, one of them being Patton. Lily, the senior who was field commander, would bring out the middle podium as well. The back podium was brought out by an sophomore who signed up for it.

  
Roman approached the side where everyone put their water bottles. There was a small wooden structure by the band tower that would protect instruments during rain. It was new and they all enjoyed it as it got them out of the sun for a bit. Roman sighed as he entered under the roof, feeling the change from grass to a turf like material under his feet. He set his water bottle next to where Virgil and Logan was sitting. He and Thomas joined them on the ground and entered the conversation.

  
A few minutes later, Patton’s whistle blew as Lily’s voice rang out, telling them it was time to begin stretches. They got into their normal block...except it wasn’t as it normally was.

  
See, it was Band Camp, so some things were run a little differently than normal practice. For example, during stretches, all of the seniors lead instead of just the field commanders. They stood in a line, facing towards the block.

  
That day’s theme that the seniors had chosen was decades, meaning they were all dressed as if they were from the decade of their choosing. Some were wearing clothes from the 80s or the 70s. One person forgot and said that their favorite decade was the most recent decade. The best one was from somebody who wore clothes that represented the 1400s. However they wore a simple outfit underneath because their outfit did not do well with the heat.

  
Lily helped them through stretches while the other two field commanders joined the block, as they were not seniors. At the end of stretches, they did something that they only did for Band Camp.

  
“Arm circles!” The seniors cheered, the other experienced marchers joining as well. The first years were confused, but went with it. They all held out their arms and started doing arm circles to a song that they had for it. It was fun on the first day, but they would all be sick of it by the end of the week, mainly because they would want Band Camp to be over. The song would get stuck in all of their heads during multiple points of their lives.

  
After stretches, Mr.Morrison ran marching basics, teaching them little skills and helping them improve. Then they worked on going over what they had already learned with their drill. It wasn’t much, but they still tried to figure it out well. It was exciting but boring at the same time, and the heat didn’t make things any better. It was the morning and already hot, making everyone dread the afternoon practice when it was the hottest time of the day.

  
For the moment, however, it was time for lunch. The five friends of this story happily went inside in order to get food. They stored their instruments in the band room and ran off to the cafeteria. The band parents were serving barbecue pork that day, a dish that was always amazing each year. There was also some potatoes, fruits, vegetables, chips, desserts, and drinks. The line wasn’t that long yet, so the five of them got their food quickly and sat down at a table near the small stage in the cafeteria.

  
“I’m already exhausted,” Virgil whined as he ate his food.

  
“And we still have the rest of today and four more days left!” Patton yelled. The others groaned, as did those at tables around them that heard Patton.

  
Next was two hour sectionals. Each group had a somewhat professional that Mr.Mike had come in to help them. They would most likely help them all season, but there’s always the chance that somebody new would come instead. These sectionals were spent playing and perfecting the pieces that they had to play.

  
At the end of sectionals, they would get the chance to pass of their music. This meant that they had to play their music by memory for the people who came in to help either alone or with a partner. They had to have the most important songs passed off by the end of the season if they wanted an A in band when school started. These songs included the show music, fight song, Alma Mater, Star Spangled Banner, and would later include the songs they would get for eighth grade night and senior show.

  
A lot of the upperclassmen and sophomores were already able to pass off the fight song since they still remembered the easy song from the year before. A few of them were even able to pass of the Alma Mater or the Star Spangled Banner.

  
Afternoon outdoor practice was miserable. Everybody was tired and sweaty, wanting to get it over with. The only good thing about practice was that they got to learn new drill. That was almost enough to make us for the terrible heat. As they were working through the first movement’s drill pages one at a time, the band couldn’t help but notice how many visuals they had to do. The show last year didn’t have nearly that many in the first movement! They knew that it would take a lot to pull off, but if they managed to do so then it would look insanely cool.

  
At the end of practice, it was time for what everyone was waiting for. They were going to find out who would be playing the solos.

  
“First,” Mr.Mike stated over the microphone he would use everyday in order for the entire band to hear him on the field, “congratulations to Virgil for being our clarinet soloist. While he may have been the only one to audition, he certainly proved to me that he could play the piece well. I can’t wait to hear how you grow with playing it over the season!”

  
Everyone started to applaud for Virgil, making his cheeks burn in embarrassment. He was the only one who thought he couldn’t do it, it seemed. That made it worse, knowing they all counted on him for something he could easily mess up.

  
“The trumpet soloist,” Mr.Mike continued on, “is Christina! She and Harold both did well on their audition, but Christina came out on top. She will do a great job with this solo.”

  
More applauding came, but most people were ready to see who got the flute solo. There was a bigger competition between them, so they were anxious to see who actually got it.

  
“And finally,” Mr.Mike concluded, “we have the flute soloist. This one was a very hard pick, as all four of them did a terrific job. However, one was better than the others, and I know that he will be able to perform it spectacularly. Congratulations Roman!”

  
The applause came back, everyone telling Roman that he would do a great job. Roman had a huge smile on his face, proud of himself but also wanting to cry at the same time. It felt especially good to see the other three who auditioned look pouty as they also congratulated him on getting the solo. He hoped there wouldn’t be any resentment from them, but if there was, he didn’t care enough about it. The only thing that mattered was that he was going to be playing alongside Virgil.

  
The color guard instructor, who was at the top of the tower as well, took the microphone when Mr.Mike offered it to him in order to announce who got the special solo that was in the show for guard.

  
“All of the guard are wonderful performers, but I think you all know who is about to get this solo,” Rick, the guard instructor, said. “You’ve all placed your bets on him, yes I’ve seen you doing that, even though you’re all great. But I agree that Thomas deserves this solo with how hard he works each year. He’s come so far since he first started and it really shows.”

  
The applause was the loudest yet, especially coming from the other guard members. They were all very proud of Thomas, none of them that bitter since they knew he really did deserve it.

  
Dinner came and went and it was finally time for that afternoon’s activity. Those who stayed for the activity gathered outside on the field that was near the doors to the cafeteria. Set up on that field were some water games that they could play, the main ones being a giant slip ‘n slide and a water limbo. They could also use water guns to spray each other.

  
Virgil immediately went over to the water guns and picked up the biggest one he could find. He quickly filled it with water and went over to where the slip ‘n slide was. Roman was just about to take his turn on it, so it was perfect timing. Roman ran and leaped forward, sliding quickly down the plastic. When he got to the end, he went to stand up. However, he tripped and fell onto his butt when he was suddenly hit by a blast of water. When he looked up, he saw Virgil standing there with the water gun, laughing. Roman grinned as he quickly got up and started chasing the gloomy boy. Virgil defended himself from Roman by continuously squirting water at him. Roman growled as he went to get his own water gun, filling it up as quickly as possible. It didn’t hold as much water as Virgil’s, but it would have to do.

  
Later that night, everyone was covered in towels and blankets. Those who thought ahead took turns in the bathroom in order to change clothes. The others just went home in their wet outfits.

  
The next day’s schedule was the same. They started out in the morning with the usual stretches. It went fairly well, especially since everyone was used to the arm circles song and was able to sing it louder and clearer.

  
The theme that day was Pokémon and none of the seniors forgot to wear their gear. Some of them were wearing onesies, despite it feeling like a thousand degrees outside. There were two Pikachus, a Charmander, and an Umbreon. A lot of people were wearing T-shirts and some even had socks with cute Pikachus on them.

  
“We have to do this theme next year when we are seniors,” Virgil told Roman when they used each other to do the partner stretch they had to do.

  
“Yes,” Roman agreed, “and we also need to have a Disney themed day!”

  
Morning practice was harder that day since they had a lot more drill to work on. They spent the time doing some basics and then going over everything they had learned the day before. They would want to focus on learning even more drill in the afternoon, so they had to make sure they remembered everything they already knew in the morning.

  
Lunch that day consisted of hamburgers, exciting everyone there. To make it better, there was also macaroni and cheese, along with more chips, some different types of melons, desserts, and drinks.

  
“Who is staying for the movie tonight?” Patton asked.

  
“I can’t,” Logan said, giving Patton sorry look. “My mom needs some help around the house and I promised that I would come home right after dinner.”

  
“Awe, that suuuuucks,” Patton frowned, disappointed that he couldn’t watch the movie with his boyfriend.

  
“I’ll be here for tomorrow and Thursday’s activities,” Logan reassured him, “so at least we can spend some time together this week.”

  
“You’re spending time together right now,” Virgil pointed out.

  
“And you’re gonna see each other all day long this week,” Thomas added.

  
“Yeah, but it’s not the same when you are practicing. Besides, I’m on the podium to the right of the pit, too far away to talk to Logan at all,” Patton cried. “What about you guys? Are you staying?”

  
“Afraid not,” Roman said. “I promised to babysit my neighbor’s four year old daughter so that they could have a date night. We’re going to play dress up!”

  
“Well, I can’t get upset over that. You’re going to make a child happy!” Patton cheered, feeling better knowing that a kid was going to have entertainment while her parents were gone.

  
“Well, I’ll be staying,” Thomas said.

  
“Same,” Virgil nodded.

  
“Yay!” Patton yelled, glad that two of his friends would be with him.

  
“I wonder what movie we’ll watch,” Virgil pondered.

  
“We should get there as soon as we can after dinner so that we can help pick it out,” Thomas suggested. The other two who were staying agreed.

  
Sectionals seemed to be both better and worse than outdoor practice. It was indoors so they weren’t in the heat, but it was also used to go over the music over and over again. It could get quite boring, especially in sections who didn’t have fun instructors. A lot of the band were itching to go out and learn more drill, even if it felt like a hundred degrees out.

  
They were prioritizing working on the first movement in each section first so that they could quickly get music put to the drill that they were learning. They also had to work a little bit on second movement. Third movement was pretty much ignored for the time being since they wouldn’t get to that for a while. They wouldn’t learn any drill for movement three that week since they had so much to work on already.

  
Outdoor practice that day felt like it went by a little bit quicker than the day before because it was slightly cooler out. It was only a few degree difference, but there would be a slight breeze every now and then that would cool them down. It was very refreshing. After that, they had dinner, which took no time at all since they were all relieved that practice was over.

  
As they had planned, Virgil, Thomas, and Patton quickly made their way to the band room in order to help pick out the movie they would watch. Mr.Mike had an album of movies set up on a stand and two people were already looking at them. They joined them and started to go through the movies he had.

  
“What are some options you see that you would like to put up for a vote,” Mr.Mike asked when he came into the room.

  
“How about this one?” One of the two who were there before them asked. She handed Mr.Mike the movie Thor. Patton ended up suggesting The Lion King, one that Thomas was all for as well. The other person there before them handed Mr.Mike Back to the Future. Finally, Virgil decided to add in Shrek as a joke.

  
A few minutes later, everyone who would be staying for the movie had gathered in the band room. Virgil, Thomas, and Patton sat themselves in the front towards the side, that way they would have good seats but didn’t have the projector in front of them.

  
“We have four movies to pick from,” Mr.Mike told them, “You can vote for more than one movie. The movies to choose from are Thor, Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Shrek. Who votes for Thor?”

  
A few hands went up, but not the entire band. The people who were really into Marvel in the band had not stayed for the movie, so there weren’t as many votes as there could have been. Virgil was sad because he kind of wanted to watch that one.

  
“How about Back to the Future?”

  
About the same number of hands were raised. It didn’t seem like anybody really wanted to watch a live action movie.

  
“The Lion King?”

  
More hands went up, but there were still a few people who had yet to vote at all, despite the fact that they could vote more than once. Virgil wondered if his joke would end up being the movie they would actually watch.

  
“Shrek?”

  
Many hands went up, way more than what was raised for the other movies. Everyone started laughing, especially when one person said that they were going to leave due to the results.

  
“Shrek it is!”

  
As the movie started, the rows of people were called back to get popcorn out of the small ensemble room where the cubbies for the marching uniforms were. A popcorn machine was set up and they were allowed to grab small bowls of it. There were also drinks and candy to take as well.

  
When the movie was over, Thomas, Patton, and Virgil sat outside for a little bit together, just talking.

  
“That was fun!” Patton exclaimed.

  
“Yeah, it was,” Thomas agreed. “If only we didn’t have to come back here really early in the morning again. I want to get a good night’s rest at some point this week.”

  
“Then go to bed early,” Virgil suggested.

  
Thomas gasped. “And not go online and have fun with my freetime? No way! Besides, you have a worse sleeping schedule than I do, so you can’t say anything!”

  
Virgil just shrugged while Patton giggled.

  
“It’s too bad Logan and Roman wasn’t able to stay,” Patton sighed. “Roman would have loved to join you on quoting Shrek memes, Virgil.”

  
Virgil felt his cheeks heat up a little at the mention of his crush. He would have loved to talk memes with Roman. Their group was the Dream Meme Team, but Virgil especially liked when Roman sent him memes in their dms. Of course, this blush did not go unnoticed by Patton.

  
“You’re blushing!” The happy boy shouted.

  
“Keep it down!” Virgil growled.

  
“Sorry,” Patton whispered, a large grin on his face.

  
“Virgil,” Thomas said, “why are you blushing? Do you...Do you like Roman?”

  
Virgil knew his entire face was a bright red now. He denied the accusation, but the two kept bugging him until he knew he couldn’t keep it hidden.

  
“Yes, alright! I like Roman!”

  
“That’s so sweet!” Patton cheered, knowing that the fanciful boy liked him back. He wouldn’t tell them of each other’s feelings, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. They had to get together on their own, even if Patton gives advice to help them. He couldn’t force them and betray their trust.

  
“If you say anything, I will kill you! No, wait...I’ll kill Logan so that you suffer even more!” Virgil threatened.

  
Patton gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

  
“I would,” Virgil confirmed.

  
“I wasn’t going to do anything in the first place,” Patton said. “Love needs to come about on its own...buuuuut I make no promises that I won’t try to help.”

  
Virgil groaned. He had a feeling that this would be a loooooong season.

  
The third day was more miserable than the first two. The sunburns were starting to get bad, especially for those who thought they would survive without sunscreen. For example, Roman was currently suffering because he had sunburn all over his shoulders, as he had been wearing tank tops that week. Virgil, however, was feeling nice and untouched because he wore layers upon layers of sunscreen. He didn’t wear his normal hoodie because of how hot it was, but he still wore thin black pants and a black band T-shirt to hide most of his skin.

  
“You know,” Thomas said to Virgil, “at the end of the marching band season each year, everybody is the tannest they have ever been. Even Corey, from the trombones, who uses just as much sunscreen as you, is pretty tan. But you somehow stay the same pale you always are. I swear, you manage to blind me in the summer with your skin.”

  
Virgil just stared at him. “Your point?”  
“How do you do it?”

  
Virgil shrugged.

  
“He really is the fairest of them all,” Roman joked. Everyone snickered at that while Virgil just scowled.

  
The theme for the seniors that day was Harry Potter. Everyone was dressed in their Hogwarts house gear, proudly showing off where they belong. Virgil scoffed at them for thinking everyone could just fit in one house. He loved Harry Potter, but that was just stupid.

  
The activity that evening was at the pool. They didn’t have dinner as usual at the school since there was pizza at the pool. There were multiple boxes stacked on top of each other on the picnic tables by the concession stand. Soon, the tables were filled with students grabbing at the pizza. There was plenty for all of them, but that didn’t stop them from worrying over whether or not they would get any.

  
After eating until they were stuffed they all stripped to the swim suits they had changed into at the school and hopped into the pool. There were two pools available there. One was a really shallow pool with a mushroom in it that kids could stand under and play in. The other was deeper, one side being about 4 inches and steadily getting deeper as you go in. The other side of the deeper pool had two diving boards and a rock climbing wall that dropped into 12 foot deep water.

  
Los amigos de este cuento started out by going to the diving boards. Patton challenged Roman to see who could make a bigger cannonball splash. Roman ended up winning, but then lost when Thomas went against him. In the end, Thomas ended up beating all of them. They were all about the same weight, but Thomas somehow always knew how to make a great splash.

  
Overall, the pool was fun for all of them. It was nice out and the water felt amazing compared to the heat they suffered through that day. They left feeling content, trying to stay positive when they knew it would be stifling hot again the next day.

  
Thursday would be the hottest day of the week. The seniors were happy that they had chosen that day’s theme to be Hawaiian. They were dressed in summery shirts and some had grass skirts on overtop of their shorts. Everyone wore lei necklaces.

  
They had gotten through all of the drill of movement one the previous day, so they were able to work on the entirety of it in the morning practice. They practiced the visuals multiple times in order to get used to them. They had to look correct or else the judges at competitions would be very hard on them.

  
During afternoon practice they were able to start working a little bit on movement two. The goal was to get through a good chunk of it by the end of Band Camp, if not all of it. The second movement was a little bit shorter than the first, so the band was delighted to see that there weren’t as many sets for it. There wouldn’t be as many visuals either, but there would still be enough to enhance the peacefulness of the second song.

  
They made it all the way to the set that positioned Virgil and Roman on top of the large box prop for their duet. They didn’t have the prop or microphone yet, so they just stood in the spot where they would be. They would stand near each other, their instruments facing the microphone, which would lead to them facing the crowd and where the judges would be during competitions. Since they didn’t have the equipment, they couldn’t figure out the exact position they needed to be in. It would be sorted out at a later date.

  
The afternoon activity that day was a scavenger hunt. They broke down into teams of two or three and were given a list of things they needed to find. Patton and Logan decided to be a team while Roman, Virgil, and Thomas made another team. They got their lists and went on their way to find the things they needed.

  
They were given an hour to find as many things as they could from the list. There were things like a water bottle, sets that were left out on the field and now in the trash (because if they didn’t have their name on it, they weren’t going to get them back), etc… Some of them were really easy to find while others were a little harder. Some of the hardest things to find would give them bonus points.

  
Once the hour was up, everybody gathered in the band room in order to see who won. Each group’s findings were counted out by some trustworthy people that wouldn’t lie about the numbers. In the end, Logan and Patton ended up winning due to Logan’s excellent planning on what order to find the items and Patton’s good eye and love of games making him easily spot what was needed.

  
Finally, the last day of band camp arrived. The seniors were cheering about it being their last day of high school band camp ever, but also crying over the fact that it meant they would be leaving soon. Their theme was dedicated to their freshman year. They had to dress as they would have when they first entered high school, trying to show how cringy they possibly were those years ago. It made them all laugh and cry at the same time.

  
The day was just as tiring as the others. It also seemed to be going by slower since they were all ready for the weekend. Most of them would attempt to sleep all weekend, as they felt exhausted constantly throughout the week.

  
Morning practice was boring. They were getting quite bored with some of the marching basics they had to do. It was important to do them over and over, and they knew that. That didn’t make it any more entertaining.

  
Sectionals after lunch were a blessing since it got them out of the heat outside. Most of the upperclassmen had song one passed of, as well as the fight song, Alma Mater, and Star Spangled Banner. A few of the freshman had even passed off a few things. It was overall a successful sectional.

  
The beginning of outdoor practice in the afternoon was spent going through the entire first movement without stopping and then going back through the drill they learned the day before for movement two one set at a time. After they managed to do that, they were able to start to learn more of the drill. Virgil and Roman found that bit relaxing since they didn’t really have to do anything. They spent the middle of the second song to the end on top of that wooden box, not moving at all. While the rest of the band was learning their sets, they got to just sit on the grass and watch. They had to learn without the music first, so they were left with nothing else to do.

  
Towards the end of practice, the microphone that Mr.Mike was using went out. After determining that the battery had not died on the speaker, he concluded that the microphone itself was done for. He yelled from on top of his tower in an attempt for them to hear him. He told them that he would buy a new microphone that weekend.

  
“Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!” Chanting started from the entire band. Mr.Mike just laughed.

  
“You want me to toss it?” He asked.

  
“Yeah!”

  
There was no point in not giving them what they wanted since the microphone had no chance of ever working again. Mr.Mike held the microphone, along with some of the cord, above his head. The entire band cheered and roared, urging him to do it. The band director brought his arm back and threw the microphone towards the left of the tower, where they could all see it fall. Screaming and laughing from the band followed the microphone on its way down, the band going crazy when it hit the ground. The band truly was insane, almost as if they were a cult.

  
“Okay, okay, that’s enough. We need to get some things done in the last 20 minutes of practice. I need all of you to concentrate and try not to be too loud so that you can hear me,” Mr.Mike said.

  
There was no afternoon activity that night. Mr.Mike told them to all go home and rest up so that they were ready for the next week. While it wouldn’t be as long and tiring as band camp, they still had a lot to add to their show. It was going to take a lot of effort and time.

  
Band camp was a good experience for all of them. They might have been tired, hot, and miserable most of the time, but they could all agree that they had fun. The week was full of memes, band camp jokes, sarcasm, pranks, and more.

  
It was a success.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My failed attempt at trying to describe their show kind of.

A few weeks later, the box props were finished and they were able to set them up on the field to practice using them. In order to get them out to the field, they positioned the larger one on a cart upside down and then stacked the smaller ones inside of it. The smaller ones weren’t going to have somebody stand all the way on them, a few people would just march by them and every now and then people would do a cool visual by them during holds, so they were able to fit inside the larger one without any problems. Once the people who were assigned to bringing them out to the field pulled the cart out there, they would set it up in the spot needed. The bigger box was set on the 35 yard line four steps in front of the front hash. The smaller ones surrounded it in the front.

  
A few trumpets were chosen to take the props out when needed. Virgil would have helped, but Mr.Mike said that he was going to have the clarinets set up the back props for competitions and a few practices when they got them. Virgil hoped that the trumpets would be able to place the box props where they were needed every time, or else sets would get messed up.

  
Mr.Mike and Mr.Morrison helped Virgil and Roman figure out how they needed to stand on the prop. The microphone was set up where it would be every time and the two of them were positioned for the best sound and looks. They practiced getting on and off of the prop multiple times, trying to get used to doing it without falling.

  
“Hey,” Roman said after Virgil mentioned that he was kind of terrified of falling off, “think on the bright side! You were always telling me how the clarinets never get to do anything cool. Now look at you! You’re a clarinet! And you’re doing something cool!”

  
Virgil just scowled at him.

  
They recently learned how to dance to all of the percussion cadences. These dances would be done during third quarter of football games if the band chose to participate. They would also be played during parades, but Mr.Mike didn’t let them dance to them when they were in parade block, taking the fun out of it. The cadences were very odd, but they all had fun with them.

  
More music was also passed out to them. They wouldn’t need to be passed off, but they still needed to be memorized. These two songs were what was going to be played during the transitions between first and second quarter and third and fourth quarter. The first song was called “My Own Worst Enemy,” but somehow the band had started calling it “Pony Song” years before any of them were in high school. It just stuck. The second one was called “Long Train Running,” which most people absolutely loved.

  
It was about a week before the first day of school, and the band was currently practicing on the turf football field. It wasn’t the first time. They had done it once earlier that week, but they were more nervous that day. It was the second day practicing without the chips on the field, and it was also the parent show. They had managed to learn all of their sets in the past few weeks. It was nowhere near perfect, but they were able to get through the entire show. There were a few visuals they had yet to learn, and not all of the props were there yet, but it would hopefully be an okay first show. Once the parents were there and it was time to perform, they would put on their pregame show first. Then they would do their halftime show. It was very nerve racking, but everybody was still excited for it.

  
They would usually be wearing their full uniforms for their performances, but since nobody had been fitted yet and it was a billion degrees out, they wore their summer uniforms. Their summer uniforms consisted of an ugly white polo shirt and large shorts. They also had to wear the marching shoes that went with their full uniform, the only thing they had for it yet. Some people kind of liked the summer uniforms, but most people hated them. The only good thing about them was that they weren’t dying in the heat in a full outfit.

  
They had about an hour practice before the show in order to get used to the turf some more. Some of the lines in their show was trash, indicating that people were relying on the chips in order to get to their spot. However, it wasn’t something that would mess them up entirely, so they’d have to go through and fix those later. For now, they had to work on the major problems they had, such as timing in the middle of the first song and trying to get the saxophones to not speed up in the beginning. Some of them thought that it was useless and that they weren’t ready for the parent show, while others believed in the band.

  
After practice, and while the stands were still filling up with people, they were allowed to go take a water break and use the bathroom. Parents tried to wish their children good luck as they walked past them.

  
Finally, it was time for the parent show. The band lined up in two single file lines off the field by the end zone in parade rest. Percussion took 20 counts to position themselves on the field in front of them, giving enough room for everyone to get in their spot when it came time. As they were doing this, an announcer told the audience that they would be performing their pregame show.

  
Pregame consisted of everyone going to set right after percussion was ready. A field commander blew their whistle three times and they all went to set on the fourth count, yelling “HUT!” as usual. A percussionist hit the drum four times in the tempo they would be marching, and the band shouted “ready two three four go!” Then, percussion started their cadence reserved for pregame, and everyone started marking time (bringing their heels up and down in time to the beat, as if they were marching in place but not actually lifting their toes). They then started entering the field, one person at a time, every four counts. They marched down the field and then sharply turned when they got to the yard line or halfway they needed to be at. They marched forward a little bit until they were in their spot, at a four step spacing. As the band marched, the band would yell “hit!” on count four to indicate when everyone should be on a yard line or in between, and “go!” on count one to show where the next person was to go or turn.

  
Once they were all in their spots, the field commanders put up a fist and percussion changed the cadence a bit. They did a transition so that they were all facing the other end zone, putting up their instruments at the same time. A few beats went by, and then they started marching down the field while playing the fight song.

  
They soon got to the middle of the field. There, they broke off and formed a large “S” to stand for Sanders, their school name. They finished off the fight song and the audience cheered. The next song was Star Spangled Banner, so the audience stood up and took off their hats if they were wearing any. They remained standing as they played the Alma Mater right afterwards. Next, they did a cheer as they turned around and marched back to the spot they were in when they were in block and not the “S” formation. Once they were all set, percussion did a cadence and they marched towards the end zone. Once they were near the end, they formed a tunnel where the football team would run through on game days when they came onto the field. They played the fight song one time through (as it was a song where they repeated the entire thing again and took a different ending the second time). Finally, they just marched off the field.

  
The audience cheered loudly as they started their transition to their halftime show. The trumpets dragged the props that they had to where they belonged. A trombone came running out with the microphone on its stand and placed it on the proper prop. The sound with the microphone had been set earlier when Roman and Virgil were tuning together, so there was no need to do anything other than set it up. They made sure it was at the proper height (as they had put a piece of tape on the stand to mark the general area that they usually needed it).

  
The band took their spots on the field, as they hadn’t learned how to march on to it yet. The field commanders did their salute and then ran to their podiums. Lily was in the middle, Patton on the band’s right, and the other field commander on the left. Lily turned towards them when she climbed up, looking around to make sure they were all ready. Her hands came up, and she counted them off. The piece started off well, the pit doing a peaceful segment at the slowish tempo they had to go. It was followed by the woodwinds adding into that peacefulness, slowly moving as one across the field in the front. Just as the audience was starting to get into the nice quietness of the piece, they learned that it was a simple trick. The tempo suddenly sped up and they were off in the intensity. Their notes were accented in just the right places while smooth in others. The audience clapped at the sudden change, loving it.

  
The first movement was far from perfect, but that was to be expected from the first performance. They hadn’t worked on it as much as they would have by the end of the season. There was still plenty of room to grow. Many straight lines were wonky and diagonals were just atrocious. Nobody seemed to be guiding, no matter how many times the upperclassmen tried to get them to do so. There was a small tear in the music as well. However, it wasn’t their worst performance of it, as they had run through it a few times during practice. It could have been worse.

  
The second movement really was peaceful, the complete opposite of movement one. It went very smoothly, except for some mishaps going on because of the tempo being slower. It was actually slightly harder to march slower since more concentration had to be put into the moves and upper body. Many people were falling back onto their heels as they marched backwards, a bad thing to do as it did not look good. They knew that they would have to work on that. Mr.Morrison was for sure going to take a lot of time to go back to simple backwards marching.

  
It came to the middle of the second movement, and suddenly Roman and Virgil were standing on their platform. In a few measures, they would start their duet. Virgil was terrified, as he knew that he would mess up. However, when he looked at Roman for a moment, he felt slightly better. Roman gave him an encouraging look, telling him that he could do it and that he was right there with him. Virgil took a deep breath and faced towards the audience again. His clarinet came up to his lips, and he started playing.

  
A beautiful sound filled the air as Virgil and Roman started their duet. Their notes sounded perfect together, causing the audience to listen in awe. The high notes that both instruments could hit sounded great. The extreme high notes the flute could play was very different than the low notes the clarinet managed to do, but the contrast made the piece better. Granted, they may both have made a few mistakes here and there, but it wasn’t anything the crowd could pick out. Only those who were very familiar with the exact duet would have noticed. The only people who could were Virgil, Roman, Mr.Mike, and a few others who helped them practice it.

  
The second half of movement two began with that duet, but after a while the band would take over and play their parts, until it went back to Virgil and Roman. It was a very pretty piece, one that everybody adored.

  
Thomas’ solo for the color guard was also in movement two. He danced to the duet played and made very elegant movements. He performed some very impressive moves with his flag, ending the song with a toss in the air and catching it in a kneeled position. It took him a while to learn how to do that, and he still wasn’t catching it 100% of the time, but he at least caught it during this show. It landed in sort of an awkward position, but it worked.

  
When movement two was over, Virgil and Roman bowed to the audience, staying in that position until Lily counted off for their final movement. The song started out dramatic right away, bringing somewhat of an edgy feel to it as well. The two on the prop did their exit and rejoined the rest of the band.

  
Movement two had some cool visuals in it, but a few of them weren’t perfect due to poor timing. It wasn’t terrible, however, so they were proud.

  
The trumpet solo in movement three turned out great as well. Christina was one of few trumpets in the band who actually knew how to play her instrument well.

  
Finally, it was over. The crowd went wild, all of them standing up as the band exited the field. It was a huge moment for all of them. They all felt relieved that it was over with, but they also wished it could go on forever. They finally saw that it wasn’t impossible to perform, especially the freshmen who had had some doubts. It changed the way they looked at their show.

  
They were allowed to leave after having a few announcements from Mr.Mike. They needed to walk to the other side of the school in order to put their instruments away. Everybody walked in groups out of the stadium and towards the school. Of course, Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, and Thomas walked together.

  
“That was really fun!” Patton exclaimed as they walked through the parking lot. He was dragging his podium with him, the wheels making a racket behind him. They saw about half of the band going to walk all the way around the school and the other half walking towards the doors that would let them cut through the school. The ones going towards to school were laughing at the others for taking the long way around. The five of them decided to go around the school because Patton wouldn’t be able to fit the podium through the doors. As good friends, they went the long way with him.

  
“I know right!” Thomas agreed, “I thought we all did pretty well for the first performance.”

  
The others nodded in agreement, even Virgil, as he felt that they really did do okay. He usually picked out every mistake that they made, especially his, but he was too proud of the entire band to think about that.

  
As they got to the school and started to go around it, they noticed the group who had gone to the doors start to groan. Looking over, they saw that they couldn’t open the doors since they were locked. They would have to walk even further now because they went all the way over there and had to go back.

  
“That duet was very pretty,” Patton told them. “I was so into it that I almost got out of time.”

  
“Lily would have killed you,” Roman said.

  
“It’s okay! I didn’t actually mess up that badly so it’s all good!”

  
The five of them got to the band room and split up, going to where they needed to in order to put everything away. Instruments had to be put back in cases and shoes had to be put in their boxes in the storing area for the uniforms (each person had their own shoe box).

  
The flutes and clarinets put their instruments on two shelves next to each other, so Roman and Virgil were standing side by side as they packed up.

  
“You did really well with your part in our duet, Virgil,” Roman smiled at him as he took apart his instrument.

  
Virgil felt lightheaded as he gave a small smiled and replied, “Thanks, you did too. I hope it always goes well like that.”

  
Roman grinned at him and agreed.

  
As they both shut their cases and put them on the shelves, they were suddenly startled when they heard a loud shriek coming from outside. Roman and Virgil looked at each other in terror as they realized that it was Patton screaming.

  
They bolted out of the band room doors in order to see what was going on. When they got to where Patton was, they froze in fear. What they saw was truly horrifying. It was beyond anything that they ever thought they would have to deal with.

  
Screams of bloody murder filled the air.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking about making the next chapter the first football game. I have an idea for how the chapter shall end, but I’m not 100% sure if I want to do it. Do I want to get to the Prinxiety or make you read more chapters and wait for it?

The first day of school fell on a Wednesday that year, as it usually did in that town. Student piled into the doors with tired frowns on their faces, not wanting to be there. Most of their classes would be easy that day, but they knew there would be that occasional teacher who would give out homework the first day. They were also terrified of who they might have to share classes with, only knowing which few friends they had shared them with.

  
About a few weeks earlier, sophomores through seniors had to go to the school in order to get their picture taken for their school ID (and would also be used in the yearbook), their schedule, and their chromebook. Each student would get a chromebook to be used in school and to take home to use for homework. They could pay $20 insurance on it so that if it broke they wouldn’t have to pay. 

  
Freshmen had to go to school the day before the rest of the high school in order to get all of those things and get used to being in the high school. They had to suffer through a boring day, but at least they got to have a little fun at the pep rally in the morning. Upperclassmen volunteers from the band played in the pep rally, performing the fight song, pony song, and long train.

  
However, now they all had to suffer. Not everybody hated school, but most people did.

  
The morning was the time when band kids could put their instruments in the band room, but since most of them had their instruments already there due to the practice that was the day before, barely any of them took the time to walk down there. Those who weren’t in marching band but were in regular concert band did put their instruments there. Symphonic Band was first period, so a few of them didn’t bother going down yet since they’d be going straight back there anyway. Those in Wind Ensemble made sure to get there in time to put their instruments in the band room because that was last period.

  
Students weren’t allowed to go to classes before the bell rang, so those who rode the bus or got there early had to wait in the gym until it was time for first period. The teachers made sure they were sitting in the bleachers and not just standing somewhere and taking up walking space. The gym had bleachers right by the basketball courts, but there were also some in an upper part that were accessible by stairs. The upper bleachers closer to the front doors of the school was where the friends of this story gathered, as they would every day. They frowned when they saw that only four of them there, thinking of how sad it was that Patton was gone.

  
Thomas and Roman shared their first period class together. Patton was supposed to be in that class too, but unfortunately he wasn’t there. When the teacher called his name for attendance, Thomas spoke up.

  
“It’s tragic really, but Patton isn’t here.”

  
The teacher just gave him a sympathetic look, seeing the sadness in Thomas’ eyes.

  
During third period, Logan tried to explain to his English teacher why Patton wasn’t there, but he was suddenly overcome by emotion, something he wasn’t used to. He missed his boyfriend terribly. Virgil saved him from more embarrassment by explaining the predicament.

  
There were different periods for lunch, and it was too bad that not all of them had the same one together. Logan sulked to sixth period lunch, knowing that Patton was supposed to have that lunch as well. He’d have to sit alone. Luckily, Roman, Virgil, and Thomas had eighth period lunch. While it was later in the day and they would surely be super hungry by that time if they didn’t eat breakfast, at least they were together. They sat at a table towards the side of the lunchroom, away from the middle where most people were. Eighth period lunch wasn’t as large as sixth period, but there was still a significantly large number of people crowded around.

  
Everybody went out to the hallway at different times towards the beginning of lunch in order to get in a line to get food. There were different sections that had different foods to choose from. There was a pizza section that was sometimes good and sometimes weird. Next to it was a place that had different meals each day. Across from the pizza was another place where there was a different meal each day, but this one was given to you by the lunch ladies while the other one had scoops for students to get their own food. Next to the food given by lunch ladies were the chicken sandwiches and hamburgers. The chicken sandwiches alternated each day, first being regular chicken and then becoming spicy chicken. The hamburgers were terrible. These sandwiches were placed on a shelf like stand that sometimes had chicken tenders or mini corn dogs as well. Next to that, there was a place to get a side that would cost a dollar, usually some type of potato food. Sometimes they had the same stuff for free in other sections, but this was where the better potato foods were sold. A sub section was next to that, where a lunch lady would make the subs that were asked for. They were simple and only took a few seconds to make, but they weren’t the worst thing in the place. Going on, both sides of the lines had a vegetable bar that held many different types of healthy foods. Finally, at the end of the cafeteria, there was a place where drinks were held and some fruits were placed in a basket. Turning left, students had to get in line to pay for their food.

  
“How’s your day going so far, guys?” Thomas asked once the three of them were sitting at the end of the table they had chosen.

  
“It’s been trash,” Virgil said.

  
“I don’t know, it hasn’t been that bad,” Roman disagreed.

  
“Usually Patton helps me stop wanting die throughout the day, but since he’s not here, I continue to want to die.”

  
“We can help you not want to die!” Thomas exclaimed. “We don’t want you dead!”

  
“It’s not the same,” Virgil frowned.

  
“Awe, somebody misses his best friend,” Roman cooed.

  
“Shut up!” Virgil growled, making them laugh.

  
The next period sucked for all of them because they just wanted to get to band already. Having band as the last class was great because it was like a big stress reliever. They suddenly didn’t have to worry about the work they were doing. It was also easy to bring their instruments home because they didn’t have to run halfway across the school in order to get to the band room to grab them. There was also a door that led straight out to the buses, so those who rode the bus didn’t have to walk to the front doors in order to get to them.

  
When band did finally come, they were excited to see where they would be sitting. Mr.Mike had put up a seating chart to show where they would sit. Since chair auditions wouldn’t happen until after marching band season, he had them arranged based on their parts in the show at the moment.

  
The clarinets in Wind Ensemble consisted of Virgil, the other junior clarinet who couldn’t do marching band due to having surgery, about five sophomores, and two freshmen. There were nine of them, which meant splitting parts up for concert band would be pretty easy. Most of their songs were usually three parts for the clarinet, making each part have three players. Two part pieces would have four on first and five on second because more of the lower notes were needed in order to be heard.

  
The flutes had mostly upperclassmen with a few sophomores. There weren’t any freshmen, but that was okay.

  
The few people who weren’t in marching band had to grab the show music, pregame, and stand tunes because they would be working on them in class. It would sound weird because not all of the percussion were in that band, but they would have to deal with some of the missing pieces.

  
Before they started playing, Mr.Mike reminded them of the practice schedule for each week now that school has started. They started this schedule already on the Monday of that week, but Mr.Mike just wanted to make sure everybody really did know it.

  
On Mondays, they would have sectionals right after school from 3-5. The people who came in to help them during band camp week also came in for each Monday sectional. It was nice to have an indoor practice like that right after school, but it also got quite boring sometimes. It just depended on what they were working on.

  
Tuesdays and Thursdays would be practice on the field from 5-8. They would work on the drill and the visuals every single practice. The three hours seemed very long, especially when it was hot out. It tired a lot of people out and the air was always filled with complaints.

  
Fridays would be the football games, but they didn’t have one that week. The first football game was the following Friday. If it was a home game, they’d have a short practice before going in to put on their uniforms and marching down in parade block. They didn’t have practice for away games because they needed to be there on time, especially when the schools they were going to were slightly farther away.

  
Finally, there would be a few Saturdays where they would go to a competition and hopefully win awards. Those were the most nerve racking days, but also the most fun. They would get to perform at a certain time of the day, the times going from the smallest bands to the largest bands. The hosting band usually went last, but they couldn’t be scored or awarded anything. They could only find out if they made states or not.

  
Right, so there are different sized bands that are called different things. Welllllll...that’s a lie. It’s not the size of the band that determines what kind of marching band they are, it’s the number of students enrolled in grades 10-12 at the school. That means, if a large school has a tiny band, their main competition would still be with those large schools with a large band.

  
The smallest classification a band could receive with this system was C. C bands were, as one could guess, very small. Bigger than the Cs were the B bands. They were usually a little to a lot bigger than C bands. Next were the A bands, which was what Sanders High School Marching Band was. They were pretty big, but still not the biggest. Their band consisted of a few more than a hundred people. Finally, there were the AA bands, the largest bands. They had a ton of people to work with and could make an amazing show if they managed to work with all of them.

  
Anyway, Wind Ensemble went by fairly smoothly that day. Most of them already knew all of the songs from marching band, so they weren’t cite reading or making huge mistakes. It was a very chill practice, something they could get used to. They knew once concert band started, however, that it wouldn’t be as easy anymore.

  
Since it was Wednesday, they didn’t have marching practice that night. Everybody was ready to stay home and relax on their day off. Roman watched some Disney movies, Virgil stayed in his room and browsed Tumblr, and Thomas listened to some music.

  
When Logan got home, he went straight to his room and took out his phone. He pressed a few buttons and then held it up to his face. He was making a FaceTime call.

  
“Logan!” Patton’s voice called out. Logan winced when he heard how hoarse his boyfriend was, but he didn’t mention it.

  
“How are you feeling?” Logan asked.

  
“Better! Hopefully I’ll be able to go to school tomorrow or Friday. Did I miss anything important?”

  
“Not really. We told all of your teachers that you were sick today and that you wished that you were able to come. There’s not really any homework yet, except to have our parents sign some syllabuses.”

  
“Ugh, I hate being sick! Thanks for explaining to all of the teachers for me.”

  
The two of them continued to talk all night. Logan even reminded Patton of what happened after the parent show when he had seen a gigantic spider on the ground and ended up leading half the band into screaming with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think happened last chapter? I wouldn’t do anything too drastic to sweet Patton!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¡Feliz navidad! I’m sorry for not updating in so long. I have some free time for the next few weeks so hopefully I’ll have more motivation to write.

The first few days of school went by somewhat smoothly. Everybody hated having to wake up so early again and the sudden need to do homework was throwing them all off. However, it was easy stuff so far.

  
The second Friday of the school year arrived quickly. The school was getting sort of lit, all of them excited for the first football game. What made it better was that it was a home game, so more people would be filling the student section.

  
The football players were wearing their jerseys in celebration. The band dressed up in nice clothes, but all of them brought their summer uniforms to change into for practice and the game. Since it was so hot out and not everybody had been fit for their uniform yet, Mr.Mike decided that they would be wearing their summer uniform. While most of them hated the summer uniform, they’d all be thankful for not wearing full uniform when they were suffering in the heat.

  
When they all got to the school, a group of people crowded around the wall on the far side of the gym. People were placing stickers for others to grab on that wall. They were pieces of paper with a cool musical symbol on it with the words “Sanders High vs South Maria.” Each sticker also had somebody in the band’s name written on it. The purpose of the stickers were to show support for the team or band by wearing the stickers. People would grab somebody else’s sticker and wear it around all day. Some people also put them on their phone case or water bottle. Technically, the band wasn’t really meant to grab their stickers, but they did anyway because many would be left if they didn’t. The football team and cheerleaders had their own stickers with their own designs in other parts of the gym.

  
South Maria High School was the team they were playing that day. They weren’t the best team but they also weren’t the worst, so it would be a pretty fun game. Sander High’s team was getting better each year. Two years before, they had lost most of their games. Last year they won six out of ten games. They were hoping to win even more games this year.

  
When school was over there was some time before practice would start for the band. However, there wasn’t enough time to go home in between, so most of them went out with friends for some food. It would be their only chance to eat any kind of dinner unless they wanted pizza or something at the game during third quarter.

  
The five of this story decided to go to McDonalds for dinner. They were lucky that they could drive because their only choice would have been Dairy Queen otherwise, and their food wasn’t the best. There was a popular restaurant of the town nearby too that they could walk to, but it would have taken more time and they needed to be back soon.

  
“I am so excited!” Patton exclaimed. “It’s the first football game! It’s going to be so much fun!”

  
Logan smiled at his boyfriend’s excitement. They were all very excited, but Patton showed it the most. Patton glanced over at him and grinned when he saw Logan actually smiling. He thought it was due to the football game, but in reality he was fanboying over him.

  
When it was time for practice, everyone had changed into their summer uniform. They all hated it with a passion, but they would rather wear that than the full uniform in the heat. They practiced the first two movements because that’s what they would be playing during halftime. They didn’t have enough time to perform the entire show because the band from the other school had to perform as well.

  
They wouldn’t be bringing the props to the football games because that was a lot of work and they had a lot to deal with already. They also didn’t want them to get ruined before the end of the season because they needed them for competitions. They had to practice going to the duet section of movement two multiple times. They had to move the microphone to the front because they couldn’t leave it in the middle of the field without the prop. Virgil and Roman had to learn how to get to the front instead of to where the prop usually was. It looked a bit awkward, but it wasn’t very hard. It would have to do.

  
Finally, after practice, they all grabbed their water bottles and bags that they wanted to bring to the stands. They got into parade block. Each of them had a certain place in the block. They got their spots in parade block a few weeks before and practiced marching in it twice. It was tiring because they always had to be in set or playing.

  
They marched around the school and towards the football stadium. Along the way, percussion played cadences. They weren’t allowed dancing to them, but they still yelled all of the words. They were getting pretty lit and the game hadn’t even started yet.

  
The band marched to the back of the home bleachers, having to file in by threes instead of the usual six in a row because there was less space. They called out “condense!” and the three to the left of the rows moved behind those to the right of each row. As they passed, those who were hanging out behind the bleachers cheered for them. They made their way towards the front of the stands, drifting off to the side once they passed through the gate that led to the track. They marched down the track until they uncondensed and were positioned next to the band bleachers.

  
They stopped in time when the percussion yelled out “halt!” They marked time for a few beats and then stopped when their left foot came down on the third count. Mr.Mike let the woodwinds go into the stand first in order to set their bags down. Then the brass were able to sit as well. Percussion would set up their stuff in front of the bleachers. The band would need to do pregame soon, so they tried not to get too comfortable in the stands.

  
When it was time for pregame, they received a very annoying surprise. They stood in their single file lines off the field, waiting for the announcement that would introduce them so that they could enter the field. About two minutes went by without their announcement, so they were told by Mr.Mike just to go ahead and start. They entered the field, went out into their S formation while playing fight song, and then waited while everybody clapped. Next, there was supposed to be another announcement that told everyone to rise for the national anthem and the Alma Mater. However, music started playing on the speakers instead and they just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. A moment later, the football team came out and stood at the side of the field. The entire band was displeased when the announcements came on finally and they played Star Spangled Banner and the Alma Mater. They did their cheer to get back into their block and marching down the field into their tunnel. Fight Song was played as the football team ran down the field, most of the band having a frown on their face when it was over.

  
It was a very awkward and embarrassing performance. They were all mad at the team and the announcer for messing everything up. They had these things practiced for a reason.

  
The band was able to sit in the bleachers and relax. The game would start in a few minutes, and they would have to play stand tunes every now and then. For now, they could talk with each other.

  
The woodwinds and color guard sat on one side of their stands while the brass sat on the other. Of course, they could sit by each other still in the middle, but nobody ever really wanted to sit somewhere surrounded by the opposite instruments. The percussion sat in front where their instruments were set up. The pit had their symbols with them. All of the sideline equipment was on the side of the track, ready for half time. Thomas, Virgil, and Roman sat by each other on the woodwind side. Logan had managed to sit near them with his symbol and Patton claimed their side to conduct on, so they were close to them as well.

  
The game started, but the five of them didn’t pay much attention to it. Logan was the only one who understood it, but he was too busy talking with Patton to get into it. Virgil, Roman, and Thomas didn’t enjoy football that much and would rather play games against each other or watch videos on their phone. They also had some interesting and weird conversations.

  
Whenever there was a time out, they played one of their stand tunes. They also played the Fight Song for touchdowns. Sometimes they did other little tunes to show their spirit. The percussion did a lot of their cadences.

  
Once first quarter ended they played Pony Song. The flutes and clarinets did a simple swirly movement with their instruments in the beginning before playing along with the rest of the band. The brass did some cool motions throughout the song as well. They managed to play all the way through it, ending a few seconds after second quarter started.

  
Looking at the scoreboard, one would see that Sanders High School was losing by 14 points. They weren’t playing as good as they should have been, but there was still that quarter and another half to step up their game.

  
During the middle of the second quarter, the band gathered in an arc on the track behind their bleachers in order to warm up for the show. The other school’s band was doing the same thing on the other side of the stadium. They started out with the warmups they did every time. Then, they ran through the first two movements, everybody doing the visuals when needed. While they still needed to work on a few things, especially dynamically, they were sounding pretty good so far.

  
Virgil was feeling very nervous at that point. The parent show had been bad enough with his anxiety, but they were performing in front of a bigger audience and more people from their school now. There was more pressure not to mess up, as the school would probably talk if anything major went on. It would die pretty quickly because it was band and most people cared more about sports, but it could still be embarrassing.

  
Soon, it was half time. Sanders High School was only losing by 7 points now, so they were closer to coming back and winning. It would be a tough game, but worth it if they could beat the other team.

  
As the football teams left the field, the other band took position off the field for them to be able to march on. The visitar band always went first at every game, followed by the home band right afterwards. Sanders High School Marching Band waited on the track away from the field in order to watch the other band without distracting them.

  
“Please welcome the South Maria Marching Band!” Called the announcer as the band started to place themselves on the field. “They would like to perform the first two movements of their show entitled ‘On the Verge of Extinction.’”

  
The crowd clapped for them. Once the applause died down, the field commanders did their salute and ran to their podiums. This band had a giant podium in the middle and two very smalls ones at the side that looked like the size of stools. One could compare the size of the smaller ones to the bigger one as tiny humans beside a huge titan.

  
The middle field commander counted them off. The music started right away as intense and daring. It also held a lot of feelings. There were multiple visuals used in order to show that some kind of fighting was going on. The color guard even had fake swords to use and were acting as if they were having a war. Every now and then, one would fall as if they were taken down in battle. Their flags were intense, one set being a bright red that seemed very threatening.

  
There was a lot going on with the different instruments during the show. The low brass contrasted wildly with the woodwinds, but it worked out very well in their favor. There was even a spot at the end of their second movement where they ran across each other on the field, something that amazed everybody. It was kind of sloppy looking at the moment, but with practice they could get it right by the end of the season.

  
Of course, there were some problems with the performance. There was a major tear in music during the beginning of the first movement, but they were able to get back on track during a tempo change they had. They also had some guiding issues going on, but not as bad as it could have been. This show would be amazing by the time states came around, and there was no doubt that they would be going.

  
“What type of band are they?” Roman asked Mr.Mike as they went to position themselves offield while the other band exited and the audience applauded.

  
“They’re an A band like us,” Mr.Mike replied. “They’re going to be some of our biggest competition probably. However, going off of the last few years’ scores, there are many bands who have been doing well and will probably do great again this year.”

  
They started to position themselves on the field in their opening set. They stood tall and proud, wanting to look their best for the crowd. They knew that they looked silly in their summer uniform, but that was something they would all have to ignore.

  
“And here we have it, everyone,” the announcer announced, “what we have all been excited for! Our very own Sanders High School Marching Band! They are going to perform the first two movements of their show, ‘Personality Flawed!’”

  
The crowd roared, noise coming the most from the student section. Some band parents could be heard calling out names, wishing their children good luck.

  
It was time for their first half time show.

  
The field commanders did their salute and climbed their podiums. Lilly made sure they all looked ready before bringing her hands up. Smiling slightly, she counted them off.

  
The first movement went by smoothly compared to what they had expected. There were only some small problems music wise, not even a single major tear. Their lines were very iffy, and guiding was terrible at times, but it was better than it was before.

  
Movement two was where things went wrong. It started out fine. The melody was very beautiful and the visuals went well. Their lines were a little bit better in this movement, even though there were still some pretty bad spots. It seemed to be going well...until it came time for the duet.

  
Getting to the front was no trouble for Roman and Virgil. After the multiple times they practiced it, it really wasn’t even anything they needed to worry about. The duet started as it always did, sounding very pretty and romantic. The rest of the band came in when they needed to, performing a few visuals that went along with the piece. The color guard backed them up with amazing dancing and flags. Thomas was even doing his best at the moment, performing even better than he did at the parent show.

  
Then, Virgil made a mistake. It was the middle of some eighth notes he had and he accidently played a wrong note. Usually he could get past that and get back on track with what he was playing, but he was so scared and nervous that it caused him to play another wrong note. By the time he messed up three notes in such a short amount of time, he was unable to go on. He froze and didn’t play another note. He could see Roman struggling to make the piece sound good without him out of the corner of his eye, but the image was soon covered when his eyes filled up with tears. A few ran down his cheeks, but he tried not to let many escape. He was afraid that he’d start sobbing, which would make everything worse because he was right next to a microphone.

  
It seemed like forever before the song finally approached its end. It was time for Virgil and Roman to do their bow, but Virgil didn’t think he was up to it. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he soon found that he didn’t have to. Instead of bowing, Roman turned to him. Virgil was wide eyed, scared because Roman always did what he was supposed to in the show.

  
“Don’t move,” Roman whispered as he used the hand that wasn’t carrying his instrument to cup Virgil’s cheek. He leaned in, staring straight into Virgil’s even wider eyes…

  
...and kissed him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know much about football so sorry if anything seems weird. Also, South Maria High School tooootally isn’t a reference to Attack on Titan...

Half time was over and the band was currently putting their instruments in the bleachers so that they could go grab food during third quarter. Virgil couldn’t contain his tears as he was led off the field by Roman. To top it all off, he was extremely confused on what just happened. Roman had just freaking kissed him! He even held Virgil still while the crowd clapped before pulling Virgil along with him when the rest of the band exited the field, holding as long as they would have when they were supposed to bow.

  
When they reached the bleachers, Roman set his flute down next to where Virgil placed his clarinet. Patton, Logan, and Thomas were standing nearby waiting for them, but Roman gave them a look that said they needed some time alone. Patton grinned at him, having a strong feeling about what was going to happen.

  
Roman turned towards the emo, ready to talk about what had just happened and to confess his feelings when Mr.Mike popped up beside them.

  
“Hey, Virgil!” He greeted, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. “There’s no need to be upset! The audience loved the show and probably didn’t even notice what happened in the end. Everyone makes mistakes and it wasn’t even that bad. You didn’t squeak or anything, so it just sounded like it trailed off into a solo. I’m proud of you for doing the duet, so please don’t be too hard on yourself.”

  
Virgil just nodded. Mr.Mike knew he would be in good hands with Roman, so he let them be. However, he had a thoughtful look on his face. He had an amazing idea on how to improve the show, but it all depended on those two in order to make it happen.

  
Roman turned Virgil towards him. He noticed that tears were still flowing down his cheeks. Mr.Mike’s words helped a little bit, but it didn’t make him feel completely better. Roman could see the embarrassment and pain in Virgil’s eyes. It hurt him to see him upset, so he did the only thing he could think of. He hugged the boy close to him, letting him cry into his shoulder. It only took him a little bit to calm down, but it seemed to take forever to Virgil. It would have taken longer, but he was very nervous due to being so close to Roman. There was also another matter he had to attend to.

  
“Roman?” Virgil questioned.

  
“Yeah?” Roman replied.

  
“Why did you kiss me? If it was just to make me feel better about messing up the due-”

  
“No!” Roman cut him off, pulling away slightly so that he could look Virgil in the eye. “Well...I mean, that was part of the reason. But I really like you Virgil! I have for a while, I’ve just never known how to say it. You pride yourself in being so dark and edgy, yet everything about you makes my world light up!”

  
“Oooookay,” Virgil chuckled, “That’s really sappy.”

  
Roman smiled at him. “I know. Did you expect anything else from me?”

  
“No,” Virgil smiled back. He then braved it and leaned up to press his own small kiss to Roman’s lips. “I really like you too, by the way.”

  
Roman grinned. “So does this mean you would become my boyfriend?”

  
“Of course,” Virgil said, hugging him again. “I wouldn’t want anything else. Also, thanks for making me feel better.”

  
“I know you’ll still be upset about the duet thing, but I’m here and you can always come to me.”

  
They stayed in their hug for a few moments before Roman noticed a small group of band kids gathering outside the fence in the grass by the home side’s bleachers.

  
“Oh yeah!” He exclaimed as he pulled away from Virgil again. “It’s third quarter! Percussion is about to start cadences!”

  
The two of them gave each other a knowing look before they grabbed their drawstring bags and ran to join the group. They stood at the end of everyone, placing the bags down where they wouldn’t get stepped on. Just as they were ready, the percussion tapped off their first cadence. Immediately, those in the band who had gathered started to do the dance to the cadence. A few kids from the other band had wandered over and were watching them dance. They got excited and said that their band didn’t do fun things like this.

  
They went through all of the cadences, even some that they didn’t do in parade block but did do in the stands. The purpose of doing this was to get the crowd fired up, but also to have fun themselves.

  
Once they were done, the new couple grabbed their bags and headed towards the concession stands on the other side of the bleachers. Roman grabbed Virgil’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. He knew that despite the fun they had with cadences, it would take Virgil a while to fully get over the messed up duet. It would always haunt him in memories, but he would eventually move past it.

  
“Roman! Virgil!” Patton’s voice called out as they approached the line by the concession stand. The other three had already gotten some food. “Awwww, are you guys finally a couple?”

  
“Yeah!” Roman grinned, pulling Virgil into a side hug.

  
“That’s so cute!” Patton squealed.

  
“Congrats,” Logan said, secretly happy that they’re finally dating as well.

  
“Yeah, I’m happy for you guys!” Thomas agreed, “Even though I’ll be a fifth wheel now.”

  
“We still love you, Thomas!” Patton exclaimed.

  
“Yeah, you were practically already a fifth wheel in the first place,” Virgil said, making Thomas pout.

  
“He’s kidding,” Roman reassured Thomas.

  
“You are kidding, right?” Logan asked. Virgil just smirked.

  
“Anyway, why didn’t you guys do the cadences?” Roman asked. “You guys are always excited to do them.”

  
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “I know you guys would have wanted to spy on us too.”

  
Patton frowned. “I really had to pee.”

  
They all laughed at that, not surprised at all. Patton, Logan, and Thomas joined Roman and Virgil in line even though they already got food. There were a few different lines, so they obviously stood in the shortest one. In front of them were a few kids from the other band. They turned out to be very friendly people because they turned around to talk when they noticed them.

  
“Your show was very cool!” One of them said.

  
“Thanks!” Patton answered. “Yours was awesome as well! I loved how dramatic it was!”

  
They introduced themselves to each other, stating their instruments as well. The other group went first. There were three of them all together. One boy was a trumpet and another was a saxophone. The girl was a field commander.

  
“Hey, me too!” Patton cheered.

  
“What grade are you in?” The girl asked.

  
“I’m a junior. My name is Patton, by the way.”

  
“I’m a senior. Do you think you’ll be the middle field commander next year?”

  
“He definitely will!” Thomas told her. She nodded and let them get on with introductions.

  
Thomas told them that he was in the color guard. When they found out he was the one with the solo, they told him that he was really good and that his catch at the end was phenomenal. Logan just said his name and that he was in pit. Virgil told them he was a clarinet while Roman said he was a flute.

  
“Hey, wait a moment!” The saxophone guy said. “You two are the ones who performed the duet!”

  
Virgil frowned. “Yeah…”

  
“Hey, why do you look so down about it?” Trumpet guy asked. “It was really good! Yeah, I have a feeling something went wrong at the end or something, but honestly it wasn’t that bad. We enjoyed it.”

  
Virgil sighed in relief. “Thanks, I guess.”

  
“See Virgil, I told you it would be fine!” Roman said. “You need to have more faith in yourself.”

  
“Oh yeah, and the ending was such a surprise,” Trumpet guy added, “Are you two a couple then?”

  
“Yup!” Roman cheered. “He’s my very own emo nightmare!”

  
Virgil scowled while the others laughed.

  
When they made it to the front of the line, Virgil and Roman bought their food. Roman bought them some nachos and candy to share while Virgil bought them both drinks.

  
They said goodbye to their new friends they’d most likely never see again and headed back to their bleachers. They had to be back with at least two minutes on the clock so that they could be ready to play Long Train. There was 2 minutes and 30 seconds left of third quarter when they all sat down where they had been before. Of course, Virgil and Roman were sitting closer together than they had been before, basking in the feeling of being a couple.

  
Once third quarter ended, they immediately started to play Long Train. Most of the band were standing around the stands so that they could actually do the dance. They played with enthusiasm and got very into the dance moves. They played the beginning of the music part and shouted all of the phrases needed with the middle part where the percussion played and the rest danced. However, they had to stop before playing the last music part because the game was starting again and they couldn’t play at that time. The field commanders raised a fist in the air, signalling to stop at the next downbeat.

  
Sitting back down, the band was more into the football game in the last quarter. One team would win soon and everyone was interested to see who the winner would be. Those who didn’t know anything about football were even getting into it.

  
At the moment, both teams were tied. They were both playing extremely hard, but neither team seemed able to score another touchdown. It was progressing through the quarter and the band was worried that they would go into overtime. It was getting late and most of them were getting restless. Everyone was very anxious to see who would win, and they wanted their team to come out victorious soooo badly.

  
A little bit more than halfway through the final quarter, South Maria High School scored a touchdown. It seemed like the entire home side suddenly got depressed. Despite there still being time left to catch back up, everyone lost hope and thought that they would lose.

  
The band still played at times, but none of them were as energetic as they were before. Their hearts were pounding as they watched the game.

  
Just as they thought it was over and were accepting defeat, Sanders High School scored a touchdown and tied it back up! There was only a few seconds left, so it was a very close call. Cheers rang out everywhere, the home side gaining their spirit back. The band played the Fight Song. All of them were happy to still have the chance to win, but they also groaned at the fact that they had to sit through overtime now.

  
Overtime started and everyone was getting really nervous. It was such a close game. This could go either way and that made everyone feel even more on edge. At first, the visitor team got close to getting another touchdown, but they were stopped from actually doing so by some great defense.

  
Finally, in the end, everyone was ecstatic to watch as Sanders High scored the final touchdown and won the game. The night air was suddenly filled with shouts and cheers. All of those on the home side stood up in the stands, jumping up and down and clapping. The band played Fight Song again, but it was played with more fire than it was during pregame. They wished that they were wearing their hats so that they could turn them backwards as they would every home win.

  
The team bid the other team a good game and ran to the middle of the field. The student section joined them on the field as well. A large group gathered there as the coach talked. While they were doing that, the band collected their things and got ready to play the Alma Mater.

  
The group on the field cheered and shouted their school name before running over to the end field where the band was waiting. They grinned at the band as they threw their arms around each other, the seniors in the front of the crowd. The band played the Alma Mater and the team and student section swayed left to right. Once they finished, the cheering started again as they ran off, leaving the band to have their own happy moment.

  
After things calmed down some, the band got back into parade block. The percussionists looked around to find unlucky victims who would have to carry their drum stands. They couldn’t carry them themselves because they had to carry their drums and perform cadences in parade block, so they always found somebody who didn’t have anything else to help with. Usually, they’d find the same person each time unless they weren’t there or had new things to do. Technically, anyone was up for grabs, but they tended to try and find freshmen to do it. While it made sense because a lot of freshmen didn’t do anything besides march back, it was also kind of rude according to Mr.Mike.

  
They couldn’t go straight to the band room, however. At the end of every home game, whether they win or lose, they would gather around the concession stands in order to play Pony Song and Long Train for those who worked there. Parents usually worked the concessions stands, but they weren’t able to watch the game much or the halftime show, so the band played for them. It was to thank them for helping and let them see a performance.

  
The low brass, trumpets, saxophones, percussion, and color guard were able to squeeze in a somewhat nice arc around concession, but the flutes and clarinets couldn’t fit in all the way. They were a clump on the end, but nobody seemed to mind as they started to play. Other parents and students watched as well. They started with Pony Song, but they really wanted to get to Long Train. During Long Train, the bass drums and color guard would circle around the rest of the percussion. They were able to dance and play all the way it this time because there wasn’t a football game to interrupt them.

  
When they were finished, everyone clapped. Once they were ready, the band marched out to the parking lot in single file because there wasn’t much room. Once they got to the parking lot, they were able to get back into full parade block. They marched to percussion cadences again. Once they got to the grass field, they were actually allowed to dance to the cadences. Marching back to the band room after a football game was one of the only times they were allowed to dance to them in block.

  
They stopped right outside the band room, going to set after halting since they weren’t already due to cadences. Mr.Mike told them that they did a really good job and then shouted what he always did when he was dismissing them.

  
“BAND TEN HUT!”

  
“HUT!” They all yelled.

  
“BAND DISMISSED!”

  
“WITH PRIDE SIR!”

  
They were now free to put their instruments away and go home. Most would take their instruments home in order to practice, but a few wouldn’t bother. Some people quickly put everything away and left while others stayed to mingle.

  
Virgil was switching his marching band shoes for his regular shoes. He placed the lid underneath his shoe box so that it would air out and not get extremely smelly and gross. There was a bunch of turf in it, but he’d deal with that later.

  
He was ready to go home, but he decided that he should probably say goodbye to his friends and new boyfriend. They’d be sad if he just left without talking to them.

  
“We wooooon!” Patton was singing when Virgil joined the circle his friends were in outside. “That was so exciting!”

  
“You barely watched it,” Logan pointed out.

  
“Yeah, but it still feels good that we won! And we got to march and have fun!”

  
“It was very nerve wracking,” Virgil said, “I hate that feeling.”

  
“Awwww, you know you had fun,” Roman teased. Virgil glared at him in annoyance, denying that he really did enjoy the game. He liked it for other reasons, but he would never tell them that.

  
“Well, we have to go,” Logan stated, taking Patton by the hand and pulling him towards his car. They usually drove to school together. “He’s spending the night at my house and my parents want us to bake with them.”

  
“They love my cookies,” Patton beamed as he waved goodbye.

  
“I’m going to leave as well,” Thomas said. “I have a feeling that you guys want some time to talk.”

  
Once they were alone, Roman turned towards Virgil and took him by the hands. Virgil blushed as he met Roman’s eyes.

  
“Would you like to go on a date tomorrow?” Roman asked him.

  
“Really?” Virgil asked. “You really do want to date me and take me out alone?”

  
“Of course I do,” Roman reassured him, “Virgil, you’re so much more than you see yourself as. Please believe me when I say that I reaalllly like you.”

  
Virgil gazed at him for a moment before answering, “Okay, I believe you. I would like to go on that date tomorrow.”

  
“Can I pick you up around noon? We would have the entire afternoon and evening together. You could even stay at my house tomorrow night if you want.”

  
Virgil agreed to that with a smile on his face. Roman grinned as well as he pulled Virgil closer to him. He gave him a kiss before saying goodbye. They both got in their cars and drove in opposite directions, thinking about what the next day would bring.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for their date! This might be longer than the band camp chapter. I don’t know how to feel about this, but oh well.

“Mom? Dad?” Roman called out as he entered his house after the football game. He knew his parents would be home by then. His parents had wanted to go to the football game to support him, but they both had to attend a business party for his mom’s work that had been scheduled for months. It was unfortunate, but they would get to go to most of the others later on.

  
“Yes, honey?” Roman’s mother responded from the living room. When Roman followed her voice to where she was, he found his parents sitting by each other on the couch. They were watching television, but his dad had paused it in order to let their son be heard.

  
Anyone who has met Roman’s parents would not be surprised to learn that he got his dramatic and romantic personality from them. They were always being lovey dovey with each other, sometimes even embarrassing their son with their acts. He loved them to death, but they could be too romantic with each other sometimes, and that’s something coming from him!

  
“I need your help badly!” Roman cried out, sitting down between his parents as they had scooted over to accommodate him. “I have some ideas but I’ve never really done this before so I need to make sure they’re good. I was thinking that I could maybe make some kind of simple lunch, but I also like the idea of spoiling him at a restaurant…”

  
“Wait, Roman,” His father interrupted him, “Are you...Do you have a date?”

  
“Yes!” Roman exclaimed, “Tomorrow! I need soooo much help, I’m supposed to pick up Virgil at 12 tomorrow!”

  
“Awe, and it’s with Virgil too?!” His mom squealed, hugging her son tightly by the shoulders, “That’s so cute! You’ve liked him for so long and you’re finally going out with him! Who grew a pair and confessed first? Tell us the story!”

  
Roman explained to his parents what happened. He told them about the duet mishap and how he had kissed Virgil. His mom fangirled as he talked about them becoming boyfriends and him trying to comfort Virgil.

  
“Okay okay!” Roman’s mom clapped her hands together happily, “You need to plan your date! We’ll help you, of course, but you need to make sure everything goes well!”

  
“Oh, thank you!” Roman said. “Oh, and he’s staying over if that’s alright.”

  
“As long as you guys don’t...do anything...if you know what I mean,” Roman’s dad said sternly.

  
“Nothing like that will happen yet,” Roman promised, “We just started dating and neither of us will be ready for that until well into our relationship.”

  
His father nodded in approvement. He was glad that his son was dating Virgil and not some other random guy because he knew that Virgil wouldn’t purposely hurt him. Roman was equally as happy because he knew his parents wouldn’t question Virgil too much since they already loved him like their own son. His mom had not so secretly shipped them for years too.

  
The family began to come up with ideas for the date. His mother suggested a candlelit dinner, but Roman shot that down because it seemed too much for a first date. He also knew that Virgil would feel too uncomfortable with it. His father, who was a chef, recommended some food that Roman could make and offered to help. More ideas were thrown out before Roman got started with preparing some things. He wanted everything to be absolutely perfect.

  
...

  
Virgil was watching Stranger Things in his room when his mother arrived at home. It was only him and his mom in the house because his dad left when he was a child. He was never told the actual reason why, but he had a feeling that he was part of it. His mother always denied that being the case, but Virgil couldn’t help but think that way.

  
“Virgil!” His mom’s voice called as she knocked on the door to his room. She was getting home late because she was a nurse at the nearby hospital and had days where she stayed longer. Now that it was marching band season, she was going to try and take longer shifts on other days so that she could make some of the football games and competitions. “I just got a call from Roman’s mom. She told me that you and Roman are dating now! Oh, you better have been planning on telling me about this!”

  
“Don’t worry mom,” Virgil said as he paused his show, “I was going to tell you as soon as you got home but it looks like I was beaten to it.”

  
“Ohhh, I’m so excited for you! Tell me everything!”

  
Just as Roman had done, Virgil told his mother the story of how he and Roman had gotten together. She listened intently and soaked in every word.

  
“Awe, my boy is gonna be happy,” She said when he was finished. Suddenly, her face somehow lit up even more than it already was. “We need to pick out an outfit for you to wear tomorrow!”

  
“I’m sure anything will do,” Virgil protested.

  
“Nonsense! You’ve got to look perfect for your man!”

  
“Now you’re just being embarrassing.”

  
“Oh, shut up and come on!” She pulled him up from his bed and dragged him over to his closet. The majority of it was black, obviously, with some purple thrown in here and there. There were only one or two outfits with more color that his mom had bought him that he barely wore. She encouraged Virgil to wear his own style, but she did like to tease him every now and then.

  
“Is this really necessary?” Virgil asked.

  
“Yes! Don’t you want to impress Roman?” His mom questioned while handing him one of one of the colorful outfits. It consisted of white pants with a colored shirt. It was rather ugly in his opinion, but his mother had only bought it as a joke. She did make him wear it to a family gathering once.

  
“Well, I guess, but he already knows me and I would rather him like me for me. This outfit definitely wouldn’t show me as me and he would know how much I hate it. I also don’t think I’ll need to dress fancy at all.”

  
“Hmmm, yeah, you’re right. What about this one?”

  
She handed him some simple black jeans that still looked nice and a short sleeved shirt. The shirt was black, of course, but it also had a smooth purple pattern on it. It was a nice outfit that wasn’t too much or too little.

  
“This one would work,” Virgil agreed.

  
“Yay! See, wasn’t this important to do? You probably would have just thrown on a tshirt tomorrow if I didn’t make you do this!”

  
“Yeah,” Virgil admitted with a sigh. He really was grateful for his mother. She was always there for him when others were not.

  
“Get a lot of sleep so that you’re not tired and cranky tomorrow,” Virgil’s mother ordered. “And make sure that you shower and try to make yourself presentable. You smell like sweat from the football game, and you also don’t want him to be grossed out. I know he probably won’t ever be grossed out by you, but you have to put in some effort.”

  
“I will mom,” Virgil said, “and...thank you for helping me.”

  
Virgil’s mom smiled at him with love in her eyes. She adored her child with her entire being. While she was sad that he was growing up and getting closer to figuring out what he wants to do with his life, she was also proud of him for finally finding somebody who would make him happy and treat him right. She was ecstatic when she found out this somebody was Roman as well because he always seemed to brighten Virgil’s day and keep him from hating himself when she couldn’t do it herself. She and Roman’s mom had actually spoken multiple times about how cute their sons would be together.

  
She couldn’t wait until their wedding.

  
...

  
The next day, Virgil woke up early enough to get ready. He took a long shower, longer than his mother would have liked, but he didn’t care. He liked being under the warm water for a while, but he always ended up turning the water cold by the end. There was something about the cold that he loved, especially when it was freezing water hitting his scalp.

  
Virgil put on the outfit his mom helped him pick out the previous day. His hair and teeth were brushed, deodorant was used, and finally he was ready. He was really self conscious all the time, but he couldn’t help but like the clothes on himself. He only hoped that Roman would like it too.

  
Virgil also packed a bag with some pajamas and clothes for the next day since he would be staying the night. He put his toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, brush, and deodorant in the bag as well. His phone charger, wallet, and keys went on top of everything else.

  
Virgil was glad that his mom had to go to work early that morning. She would have made them take thousands of photos together before letting Roman take Virgil. He didn’t think he was up for posing for an hour.

  
The doorbell rang just a minute after noon. Virgil hurriedly threw on his shoes before grabbing his bag and opening the door. He was met with a stunning looking Roman. The fanciful boy was adorned in a cool pair of red jeans and a white shirt with a gold pattern that hugged his body. Virgil’s face turned a bright red as he saw how hot Roman looked.

  
“Good afternoon Vir-whoa…” Roman’s eyes grew wide. “Virgil, you look... beautiful.”

  
Virgil nervously touched the tips of his fingers together while looking down at the ground. “Do you really think so? I’m not so sure...I didn’t know whether you’d like this outfit or not.”

  
Roman placed a finger underneath Virgil’s chin and made him look at him. “I love it, Virgil. But it’s not just the outfit that makes you look beautiful. You’re just so cute in general. You could literally wear any outfit and I would love it.”

  
“I’m not cute!” Virgil growled.

  
“Yes you are!” Roman argued.

  
“Noooo,” Virgil protested, “I’m threatening.”

  
“Whatever you say,” Roman sang before grabbing Virgil’s hand and pulling him out of the house. He took Virgil’s bag for him and waited as he locked the door. Roman opened the passenger door for Virgil and placed his bag in the trunk so that it wouldn’t be seen or stolen. Finally, he got into the car himself and drove away.

  
“So what’s the plan for today?” Virgil asked.

  
“You’ll just have to see,” Roman responded.

  
“You’re not going to tell me anything? Not even a single hint?”

  
“Nope! But I can tell you that you will love it!”

  
Virgil just shook his head in amusement. As he was doing so, his phone buzzed, signalling that a text message had been sent to him. Opening it up and reading it, he groaned.

  
“Are you okay?” Roman asked him.

  
“No,” Virgil replied, “My mom just texted me. She demands that we take a lot of photos together.”

  
Roman laughed at that and told him to tell her they would.

  
Virgil looked out the window for a little bit to try and figure out where they were going, but they were in the middle of town so they could be going anywhere at that point. He gave up and settled with gazing at his boyfriend instead. As he was doing so, he noticed something that made him like this boy even more.

  
“Are you wearing makeup?” Virgil asked. He knew that Roman liked makeup and things like that, but he had rarely seen him with it on. He assumed that he was scared to show off this hobby of his because of the world being full of so many judgeful people. He was glad that he had decided to wear it today.

  
Roman glanced at him for a second before turning back towards the road and answering, “Yeah, but just a little bit. I mainly just used it around my eyes. Is it too weird? I can take it off and not wear it next time.”

  
“No!” Virgil hurriedly said. “No, it’s not weird, I was just surprised. I would never ask you to change yourself like that. I actually quite like it. You should do my makeup someday and maybe even teach me how to do it myself.”

  
Roman grinned. “Well, we’ll have some extra time later when we’re at my house. I could give you a makeover tonight.”

  
“That sounds great.”

  
Roman loved the idea of giving his boyfriend a makeover. He absolutely adored things like makeup and dressing up, so he was glad that Virgil had accepted it and didn’t think him as weird. He didn’t know what he would have done if Virgil had reacted badly. Yeah, he had said that he would take it off, but he knew that he would have been more reluctant if it came to that.

  
Soon, they exited the town. Virgil really had no idea where they were going. No matter how much he asked, Roman would not give in.

  
Virgil was surprised to see the car turn into a park. It was one that he had never been to before. There weren’t any types of playgrounds anywhere, so there weren’t many kids running around. It was right by the woods, which gave it a nice nature feel without it feeling forced. There were some walking paths that went through those woods. To the left of the park, slightly towards the back, was a pond where people could fish. There were some benches that faced the water so that people could just view the peacefulness. All around the park, there were areas with picnic tables and stoves. There were even some large grassy areas to play or sit in. It was a gorgeous place. Virgil was in awe.

  
“We’re here!” Roman exclaimed. He quickly got out of the car and ran around to open the door for Virgil. Virgil would have made a comment about how “gentlemanly” he was (and he would never admit to Roman that he really was more of a gentleman than most people he knew), but he was too busy admiring the scenery of the park to do so.

  
“This place is amazing,” Virgil commented, “How did I not even know it was here?”

  
“Probably because you don’t get out much,” Roman teased.

  
“Well, I’m out now.”

  
Roman opened the trunk of his car in order to grab a picnic basket. Virgil mortified himself by actually giggling.

  
“Is there something wrong?” Roman asked, worried that Virgil was laughing because it was a stupid idea.

  
“No,” Virgil shyly smiled. “But this is just like you. You even used a basket.”

  
“Hey, I think this is romantic!”

  
“It is. I think it’s cute.”

  
Both of them had pink dusted on their cheeks. They smiled at each other. They were living in this feeling of being together as a couple; a feeling that they hoped would stay for a really long time.

  
Roman led Virgil over to a secluded part of the park. There was a small open section hidden within the trees that they set up in. Roman pulled out a blanket from the top of the basket and laid it on the ground. They sat down next to each other, their knees touching. The basket was placed in front of them as Roman dug through it to pull out different food.

  
“My dad helped me make this,” Roman admitted, “but I chose what was made. I didn’t want to pack anything too difficult or anything.”

  
“This is great, Roman,” Virgil told him, “I don’t know what to say. This is just...nobody has ever done this for me before. I really appreciate this.”

  
“Awe, Virgil,” Roman cooed at his embarrassment, “I plan on spoiling you.”

  
Roman set out a plate with mini sandwiches of different kinds on it, a bowl with some salad in it, a bowl of mini pizza bites, and a plate of homemade brownies. He also brought out a bag of potato chips. Finally, he revealed that he had carefully packed a thermos of lemonade. He had put it in at the last second in order to try and keep it cold longer and surrounded it with some ice packs.

  
After handing him a plate, cup, and silverware, Roman instructed Virgil to grab whatever he wanted and to start eating. However, Virgil stopped him for a moment and made him put on some sunscreen with him so that they wouldn’t burn. After that, they both started with eating some salad and sandwiches, but they quickly finished those so that they could eat some pizza, chips, and brownies. The lemonade was perfectly made. It wasn’t too sour and it wasn’t too watered down.

  
As they were eating, Virgil took out his phone in order to take a photo with Roman. Both of them held up food to their faces for the pose. Once it was taken, Virgil sent it to his mom. Hopefully it would satisfy her motherly fangirl needs for a while.

  
“This was really good,” Virgil complimented, “Thanks. You know I’ve always loved you and your father’s food.”

  
Roman thought back to all of the times his father had made his friends food and grinned. “I know.”

  
The two of them sat there talking for a while after repacking the basket. It was easy for them to conversize since they were best friends as well. It was like how some people say that they want to date somebody like their best friend...except they actually started to date each other.

  
“Do you want to go on a walk?” Roman asked. Virgil nodded and they both stood up. They first went to the car so that the basket could go back into the trunk before they headed towards the woods. There was a shorter walking path that they chose to follow because they were both enemies of exercise and knew that they wouldn’t get through the longer ones. As they started down the path, Roman offered Virgil his hand. Of course, Virgil accepted it and the two of them chatted quietly as they enjoyed being in nature.

  
After their walk, they decided to go sit by the pond for a few minutes. The scenery with the pond was very pretty, but unfortunately the water wasn’t clear due to it not being the cleanest. Virgil forced himself to focus on what Roman was saying to him instead of thinking about what would happen if he fell into that pond. There was no way to tell how deep it was or what was lurking below. He could step on a freaking snake for crying out loud!

  
‘No, focus on Roman, not the pond’ Virgil thought.

  
They took another photo at the pond with their arms around each other for Virgil’s mom. Roman also sent a photo to his own parents because he knew they would ask for some later.

  
It was around six o’clock when they decided to leave the park. They were shocked to find that they had spent so much time there, but they had enjoyed it. Virgil was also relieved that he had used a lot of sunscreen.

  
On the drive back to the town, Roman revealed some of what he had planned for the rest of the day.

  
“I thought that since this picnic would probably be exciting enough for both of us, we could head back to my place and hang out there. I could give you that makeover that you want and then maybe we could watch a movie or some Netflix or something. Oh, and we need to take some photos together so that we can please your mom and show off each other on social media.”

  
When they got to Roman’s house, Roman grabbed the picnic basket and Virgil grabbed his bag from the trunk. They entered the house to find that Roman’s parents weren’t home. Roman places the basket in the kitchen, putting the inside contents where they needed to go. Then, he led Virgil up to his room so that he could place his bag in the corner.

  
“You want to do the makeover now?” Roman asked.

  
“Yeah,” Virgil said.

  
The two of them sat on the floor facing each other. Roman dragged out all of his makeup and set it on the floor next to them. He went through all of it, picking out the products and colors that he wanted to use.

  
He knew that Virgil wouldn’t want anything too extreme, so he decided to just do around the eyes like he had it. He also did some simple stuff on his face, but he mainly focused on his eyes. He used a black eyeliner first, giving him perfect wings. Then, he used a sparkly black, gray, and purple eyeshadow on his eyelids. He continued perfecting Virgil’s makeup with details until it looked the way he wanted.

  
“Done!” Roman announced, “You can look in the mirror now to see what it looks like!”

  
He helped Virgil stand up so that he could go over to the tall mirror that stood next to his closet.

  
“Whoa,” Virgil muttered as he checked out the work done on his face. “This is incredible.”

  
“You think so?” Roman asked.

  
“Totally. I could never do something like this.”

  
“Well, I’ll teach you sometime! Also, I think you look gorgeous.”

  
Virgil blushed, which he seemed to be doing a lot more of recently, and thanked him. He really did think that it looked wonderful. It suited the look he tried to go for with his clothes and hair, even if he usually ended up just throwing on a tshirt and jeans and not something too stylish. His eyes popped out and he loved the dark colors that were used. He especially liked the purple added in with the blacks and grays.

  
Roman couldn’t help himself as he leaned in to give Virgil a kiss on the lips. He was being so cute that it was driving him crazy. Virgil let him, but he pulled away quickly.

  
“Wait, I don’t want to ruin it,” The darker boy frowned.

  
“It’ll be fine, it’s waterproof and rubbing won’t do much either. A few kisses won’t ruin anything,” Roman explained.

  
“Okay,” Virgil said relieved before leaning over to kiss him again. After a moment, they pulled away and smiled at each other.

  
At that moment, Virgil’s text tone for his mother went off. He had a separate one assigned to her for when she texted so that he knew when it was her. That way, he knew when not to ignore his text messages.

  
“She wants another photo,” Virgil groaned.

  
“Oh yeah!” Roman exclaimed, “Photos! I forgot about those. I wanted one with your face all dolled up anyway.”

  
Virgil held up his phone and took a photo with him and Roman. They made sure that their faces were clearly shown in it. Once they were finished taking a few photos, he picked out the best one and sent it to his mother. She replied with a promise not to ask for more for the rest of the night as long as he showed her more when he got home the next day.

  
“Do you want to change into some pajamas and go watch something in order to relax?” Roman asked after Virgil put his phone on the charger in order to make it easier to ignore. Virgil agreed to that plan and went to dig through his bag for his pajamas. He pulled out his black and white Nightmare Before Christmas pajamas. He started to head towards the bathroom across from Roman’s room when he was stopped by his boyfriend asking for his opinion on what he should wear.

  
“Wear your Mad Hatter ones,” Virgil suggested, “We can match with Tim Burton pjs.”

  
Virgil proceeded to go into the bathroom. He made sure to use the toilet so that he wouldn’t have to awkwardly interrupt their time later by needing to pee. He changed into his pajamas after he washed his hands.

  
Looking into the mirror, he couldn’t help but be proud of the pajamas that he owned. It was a Jack Skellington onesie. The body part was the outfit that Jack wore while the hood was white with his face on it. It was really cool because the stripes on the outfit were exactly the same and there was even a bowtie at the top near the neck to represent the large one Jack wore.

  
Going back to Roman’s room, Virgil found that the fanciful boy was already dressed. He wore a onesie as well. It was a Mad Hatter onesies. It was mostly blue except for the hood, which was black. The hood was plain black and the arms and legs were plain blue. The front and back of the onesie, however, had a photo depicting the face of the Mad Hatter. It was really cool and Virgil had not been surprised when Roman had bought it. While the boy had many Disney onesies, he also had this one due to having an odd love with Alice in Wonderland ever since Patton had shown them the movie.

  
“Ready?” Roman asked. Virgil nodded and the two of them went downstairs. Roman grabbed them some snacks and drinks. They had eaten a lot during their picnic lunch, so neither of them would be too hungry for dinner. They decided to just fill up on snacks and not deal with an actual dinner at all.

  
Sitting down on the couch, Roman grabbed the remote to turn on the TV while Virgil organized the snacks around them. The couch they were on wasn’t a recliner because Roman’s parents had thought it was really comfortable, so they dealt with just sitting there for the moment.

  
“What do you want to watch?” Roman asked, “We can watch a movie or some kind of show if you want.”

  
“Have you seen the new Voltron yet? Voltron Legendary Defender?” Virgil asked him, “There are four seasons so far on Netflix.”

  
“No, I’m sorry, I never got to watching that.”

  
Virgil grinned at him. “Do you want to suffer with me?”

  
Roman laughed as he pulled up Netflix on the TV. He searched for Voltron and clicked on the first episode. He saw that it was way longer than the regular episodes, but he had no problems with that.

  
They watched as Lance, Hunk, and Pidge failed the flight simulation. Roman joined Virgil on the Klance ship as soon as Lance said he could recognize Keith’s mullet anywhere. They saw the Blue Lion’s first appearance in the show and then laughed when they got to the castle and met Allura and Coran. They stared at the screen as the others found their lions as well. They kept on watching and watching until the first episode was over.

  
“That was really good!” Roman told Virgil.

  
“And that’s just the first episode,” Virgil stated.

  
“Why haven’t I started this earlier?”

  
“I don’t know, I’ve been telling you to watch it for weeks! Even Logan watched it and he usually ignores my suggestions in order to watch documentaries instead.”

  
They were about to start the second episode when the front door could be heard opening. Roman’s parents came into the room two seconds later. When his mom saw the two of them on the couch, she squealed and scurried over to them.

  
“Hi Virgil, how are you doing?” She asked as she stood behind them.

  
Virgil looked back and smiled. Roman’s parents were always really nice to him. “I’m doing well, how are you?”

  
“I’m great! Awe, I’m so glad you two are finally together. Roman talks about you alllll the time!”

  
“Moooom,” Roman whined.

  
“Okay, okay, we’ll leave you two alone. We’ll be upstairs if you need us.”

  
Roman’s father entered the conversation, “You can see the stars very clearly tonight. I recommend checking them out, they’re very pretty.”

  
The adults waved goodbye to them and headed upstairs.

  
“Well,” Roman said, “we can always watch Voltron some more in an hour or so...Do you want to go stargaze with me? My dad obviously thinks it will be worth it.”

  
“Yeah!” Virgil quickly agreed. “I love space! Well, I don’t know nearly as much about it as Logan does, but I sure love looking at it.”

  
“Then let’s go.”

  
Roman stood up and helped Virgil up as well. He grabbed a blanket and led Virgil outside to his backyard. They picked a spot that would give them the best view of the sky and spread the blanket out there. The two of them laid down next to each other on the blanket. Between them, their hands found each other and intertwined.

  
“The stars really are beautiful,” Virgil said in awe, “It’s too bad I don’t know the constellations.”

  
“We need to get Logan to teach us about them so that we can do this again and be able to talk about it,” Roman replied.

  
“I bet Patton knows some by now as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were doing this as well right now.”

  
“Yeah. This clear sky would probably pull Logan away from them making out.”

  
“Hmmm...depends on how into it they are.”

  
They burst out in laughter, having a hard time stopping. When they were finally able to catch their breath, they fell into silence as they just stared at the stars and enjoyed each other’s company. A peaceful sigh came from Virgil as he moved so that his head was resting on Roman’s shoulder. Roman released his grip on Virgil’s hand so that he could wrap an arm around his shoulders instead.

  
“Roman?” Virgil spoke up after a while.

  
“Hmm?” Roman hummed.

  
“Thank you...for all of this. I’ll probably say it a thousand more times today and tomorrow, but I appreciate it so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  
“It was nothing, really. I enjoy spending time with you, and now that we’re dating, I can try my best to make you feel loved.”

  
“...Thanks…”

  
Roman snorted at how awkward Virgil sounding, telling him it was cute when he growled at him for doing so. They fell back into laughter at that.

  
A little bit later, they decided to go back inside before they accidently fell asleep out there. They left the blanket right outside the door so that they wouldn’t bring in dirt or bugs. They returned to the couch in the living room in order to continue watching some more Voltron. Both of them were done with snacks, so they cleared the couch of them so that they would have more room. They kept a few water bottles on a table within arms’ reach in case one of them got thirsty.

  
Before continuing, they had to go upstairs in order to remove the makeup from their faces. They took more photos before using Roman’s makeup remover pads and reluctantly getting rid of the amazing work.

  
Neither of them really wanted to sit while watching the television because they were getting tired and knew they would fall asleep during an episode. Their solution was to have Roman lay on the couch and pull Virgil down on top of him. Virgil’s head laid on Roman’s chest and his hands came up to rest below where his face was. Roman’s arms wrapped around his boyfriend, hugging him as tightly against him.

  
They continued to watch Voltron. Roman was really getting into it and Virgil was proud. They talked about who their favorite characters were so far and who they seemed the most like. They agreed that Virgil was a lot like Keith because they were both emo, but they also discussed the fact that Lance’s insecurities and some of his humor was just like him as well. The blue paladin would have begged Virgil to join his and Pidge’s Dream Meme Team.

  
Roman liked all of the characters, but he especially loved Allura and Lance. Of course, he loved Allura because he felt that he was royalty just as she was. He also thought she was funny and fierce at the same time. He loved Lance because he had a great personality that he could relate to.

  
They agreed that Logan would make a great Pidge and that Patton was basically Hunk. They also knew that Thomas wouldn’t be able to pick a favorite and would end up loving them all.

  
Soon, it was well into the night and they were exhausted. Roman was going to suggest heading upstairs where they would be more comfortable when he noticed that Virgil was asleep. He smiled as he carefully turned off the TV with the remote so that he did not wake him up. He brushed a lock of hair out of Virgil’s face before he let himself fall into a blissful sleep.

  
...

  
In the morning, the two of them were woken up by a loud crash in the kitchen. They groaned as they sat up, blushing when they noticed the position they were in. Virgil was still on top of Roman, and since they sat up, he was practically straddling the boy. Roman smirked after a moment and just leaned in to give him a kiss, making Virgil blush further.

  
“Awe, look at that,” A voice said from the kitchen that was next to the living room. Roman and Virgil jumped apart from each other, and Virgil ended up rolling to the side and onto the floor in embarrassment. The person in the kitchen was laughing while apologizing.

  
“Really mom?” Roman asked when he saw who it was.

  
“I’m sorry honey, I didn’t mean to surprise you guys. It was probably my fault for waking you two up as well. I was making breakfast and accidently knocked over some pans onto the floor.”

  
Virgil sat up on the ground and huffed, annoyed since he was slightly in pain now. He would have pouted some more, but he stopped when Roman stood up and offered him a hand. He let himself be helped off the floor. They made their way into the kitchen in order to talk with Roman’s mom while she cooked some pancakes.

  
“You didn’t have to make anything,” Virgil said when a plate was placed in front of him. “Thanks though.”

  
“It’s no problem,” She responded, “I would have made my husband do it, but he had a long day at work yesterday so I let him rest. He’s head chef at the restaurant he works at and the others weren’t getting along as well as usual. He had to deal with a lot of stuff.”

  
“That sucks,” Roman said after swallowing a bite of food.

  
“He’ll get through it. So how was the date?”

  
“It was amazing.”

  
“Yeah, Roman’s a huge sap,” Virgil mentioned, making the woman giggle.

  
When they were finished eating, Roman and Virgil went upstairs in order to get ready for the day. They really wanted to brush their teeth since they fell asleep before they could do so last night.

  
“Maybe you’ll be more pleasant to kiss now that your teeth is clean and your breath doesn’t stink,” Virgil teased. Roman pretended to be hurt by that comment.

  
Their plan for the day was to hang out a little bit in the morning before Roman would bring Virgil home. While they wished that they could have hung out all day, both of them had homework to do for different classes. It would be best for them to do it separately so that they wouldn’t get distracted by each other.

  
Overall, their date had been successful. They both had fun and they felt that their new relationship was going well so far.

  
When Roman dropped his boy off at his house later that day, he made sure to kiss him one more time. Virgil went into his house, giving Roman one last grin before shutting the door.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a filler chapter. I needed to get some things written in here before the first competition, but I also don’t want to write a chapter for each individual thing so...yeah.

On Monday, Patton squealed every time he saw Roman and Virgil so much as glance at each other. He and Thomas had a huge conversation about how much they shipped the two. Logan even added in his own input at times, mostly to talk about the high percentage there had been of the two getting together.

  
During sectionals that afternoon, Mr.Mike pulled Roman and Virgil away from their groups so that they could practice their duet together. They had done the same thing before and would continue to have practices where they would work together in the future. Mr.Mike knew that Virgil was still embarrassed from Friday, so he hoped that this practice would help bring his confidence back up.

  
As they practiced their duet, Mr.Mike also helped Christina with her trumpet solo.

  
During practice on Tuesday, Mr.Mike had a surprise for them all.

  
“I talked with Mr.Carter after the game on Friday,” he told them.

 

Mr.Carter was the new coach for the football team that year. They had no idea how good of a coach he was, but from what they heard from the players, he seemed to be better than the last one they had. Their previous coach had decided to go work elsewhere.

  
“We discussed the incident with the pregame show,” Mr.Mike continued, “And he has asked me to make some changes. We will still do our opening where we go to the S, but it will be a little bit different after that. Once we get there, we will go straight into playing the Alma Mater first. Then, we will wait for the announcement of the football team to come onto the field. As the team runs to the end zone, we will play Fight Song again one time through. The reason for this is because Mr.Carter wants the team to be present for the National Anthem. We will play the National Anthem and then start doing the usual cheer to get back into block like normal. Then, we’ll need to march straight off of the field. There will be no more tunnel at the end.”

 

Everybody was annoyed that they had to change up their pregame. The same pregame had been done for years. They had always done the National Anthem before the Alma Mater. They had always done the tunnel at the end. They had always feared for their lives as the players ran past them in the tunnel as they played the Fight Song. Now these “always” were being changed to “used to.” None of them were happy that it couldn’t be done anymore.

  
In order to warm up a little and make sure they were guiding to the right as they marched, they went back and forth on the field a few times playing Fight Song. Once Mr.Mike was satisfied, he let them line up off the field. They waited for their cue to go to set while standing in parade rest. Then, Lilly blew her whistle three times and they brought their instruments up to set. The percussion started their cadence and they began entering the field one at a time.

  
They did their pregame up to the point where they were standing in the S. There, they waited for Mr.Mike to give further instructions, as some of them had somehow already forgotten what came next. They stared at Patton, who was going to be the middle field commander during pregame next Friday (they switched every home game, but this Friday was an away game), as they stood there.

  
“Next will be the Alma Mater. Your instruments need to come down after it’s over, which is different than how we used to do it. So don’t keep your instruments up the entire time like you did before,” Mr.Mike explained.

  
Patton called their instruments up before counting the slow tempo off for the Alma Mater. The Alma Mater consisted of a lot of quarter and half notes. It had a pattern of being played with a crescendo, which meant to gradually increase in volume, for two measures and then having a decrescendo, which is a gradual decrease in volume, for two measures. They were only allowed to breath every four measures, which was a problem at first for those who had the bad habit of taking a breath every two measures in every piece of music.

  
After the Alma Mater, they played the Fight Song one time since that was when the team would be coming out. Then, they got ready to play Star Spangled Banner.

  
“There will be announcements this time,” Mr.Mike remembered to tell them before they played. “So this will be where they say something like ‘Please rise for the playing of our National Anthem.’”

  
They played Star Spangled Banner, did their cheer while going back to block, and marched down the field to the percussion cadence. They went straight off the field instead of going into their tunnel like Mr.Mike instructed.

  
They were allowed to get a water break after that, which was unusual. However, they hadn’t gotten one after running a warm up lap around the field, so they needed it. As they were doing so, Mr.Mike approached Virgil and Roman and asked if he could speak with them.

  
“This is going to sound very weird,” Mr.Mike admitted, “but I need to know. Are you two a couple now?”

  
“Yes!” Roman wasted no time in answering.

  
“Okay, well, then I need to ask for a favor. During the first game, I noticed that the crowd got very excited once our show ended. I was wondering if you two would mind ending your duet with a kiss each time. It brought a lot more romance and drama to the show, and I feel like it worked a lot better than a simple bow.”

  
Roman looked at Virgil as his eyes lit up. He wanted to make sure that Virgil was okay with it too before he blurted out any decisions like he wanted to. Virgil gave him a small nod, embarrassed but also glad that it would make the show better.

  
“We’d be happy to!” Roman exclaimed.

  
“Great!” Mr.Mike grinned. “If it ever gets too awkward or if you suddenly feel like it’s too much, let me know and we’ll change it back to the bow.”

  
They nodded in agreement. Mr.Mike told them that they would practice it a few times that afternoon so that they could get the timing and angles right. It would be weird doing it with the entire band watching, as they were all in a hold at the end and most of them would be able to see, but they needed the practice so that they wouldn’t mess up during a competition or game.

  
That night, Patton ranted to them about how cute they were.

  
...

  
The next few weeks went by smoothly. During practices, they worked on perfecting all of their movements, as they were getting pretty good at all three. They worked on visuals and trouble spots for some of the sections. Sectionals were spent memorizing and passing off music.

  
The next football game was away, so they had to take buses to the home team’s school. They had finally gotten fit for their uniforms. Each of them had an assigned number that corresponded with their pants and jacket bag. They had to drag their bags onto the bus and hang it up on the windows. Some people draped the uniform bags over the seats if it was okay to the people in front of or behind them. The students also had to bring their hat boxes and shoes. Most of them stored their hat boxes under the seats. People either wore their shoes and left their shoe boxes at the school or took the boxes with them in order to change into them there.

  
For their instruments, the flutes and clarinets kept them with them on the buses. They had very small cases, so they didn’t take up much room. Those with bigger instruments stored them on the large trailer that they had. The trailer could fit all of the wind and percussion instruments, but sometimes it got crowded. The side of the trailer said “Sanders High Marching Band.”

  
On the bus, boys were not allowed to sit directly next to girls in the seats. One could say that it was a great time to be gay at Hogwarts. They had to sign up for buses about a week or so prior to that game. The five of this story all managed to get on bus one; the bus that Mr.Mike rode on. It was always lit with him on the bus. Logan and Patton sat together in one seat, Roman and Virgil sat in the one next to theirs, and Thomas sat alone in the seat behind Patton and Logan. It was easy for him to talk to them, though, because he just had to lean forward a little bit.

  
Whenever there was a time that they needed to be on the bus, they ended up bringing their DSs and playing Mario Kart or Pokemon. It killed the time greatly.

  
Once they got to the school, they got into full uniform on the bus. They wore regular clothes underneath, of course. They couldn’t wear tank tops because they wanted to avoid pit stains and sweat on the uniforms as much as they could. All of them were wearing t-shirts and shorts.

  
“Has anyone seen my pants?” A voice called out from the front of the bus.

  
“Can somebody button me up?” Another person asked. The zipper and buttons on the uniform tops were in the back, so most people couldn’t zip themselves up.

  
“Where are my shoes?”

  
“My hat box slid forwards!”

  
It was chaos on the bus. They got dressed as quickly as they could so that they could go outside. When they got out, they immediately went over to where the birdies were being passed out. Band moms stood by the box of plumes with gloves on in order to place them in their hats. The white plumes were very delicate and could not be touched or else they’d start to turn yellow.

  
“Don’t touch the birdies!” The upperclassmen screamed at the freshmen.

  
That game didn’t go as smoothly as the last one did. The team started out losing and it just went downhill from there. By halftime, they were down by 21 points.   
The halftime show went very well. Sanders High Marching Band went first because they were the visiting team. They played their second and third movement that day. The duet went a lot better than it had last time, and the kiss at the end made the crowd cheer louder than they would have before. The third movement had a tear in it, but they were glad it happened at the game and not a competition. The other band wasn’t a competition band, but they liked their show that week because it had Twenty One Pilot songs incorporated into it.

  
The game ended badly. Sanders High managed to get a few touchdowns, but they ended up losing by a landslide. Everybody from the visitor school left the stands with frowns on their faces.

  
The bus ride home wasn’t as fun as it could have been at first, but it soon became very loud. As people were getting over the lost, they were becoming their crazy selves again. They were sure that they were getting on the chaperones’ nerves.

  
...

  
The next game was another home game. Pregame went badly again, but it was not the band’s fault. They did everything they needed to until it came time for the team to come out before Star Spangled Banner. They stood there, perfectly still, while waiting for them to make the announcement so that they could play Fight Song while the football players ran out. However, it never came. They stood there awkwardly for a few minutes while the crowd just stared at them. After a while, it was obvious that the team wasn’t coming out, so they moved on to playing the National Anthem.

  
They ended up winning the game that day. It was a relief because some people still hated the fact that they had lost the last game.

  
They found out after the game that the reason the football players didn’t come out onto the field was because some of them were planning on kneeling during it and the coach refused to allow them to do so. That ended up stalling the band because nobody could listen to their coach.

  
...

  
During the next sectionals day, they were given the piece that they would play during Eighth Grade night. Looking at it, some of them groaned while others were excited. They had to play Funky Town for Eighth Grade night.

  
Eighth Grade night would take place during the next home game. As the name suggests, the eighth graders would come and play with them. The day was used to try and recruit new members for the band for the next year.

  
During Eighth Grade night, they would start out by playing the Fight Song and then Funky town. Since the eighth graders didn’t have to memorize music, they had flip folders that attached to their instruments that held the sheet music. The marching band had to memorize and pass off Funky Town by next Friday.

  
Before they had to deal with Eighth Grade night, however, they had an away game to go to that Friday. It was farther away than the last away game was, much to their displeasure. It would be a long, tiring day and they were scheduled to get home real late. What made it worse was that their first competition was the next day. They would have to get up real early for that as well.

  
That away game ended up being another win for Sanders High School. It was probably the best game that they have had all season so far. That was not saying much since it was just the fourth game, but they could have done a lot worse.

  
When everyone got back to the school, it was around 11:30. They still had to put all of their stuff away and drive home. The majority of the band members would go to sleep as soon as they could, but there was also a few who would stay up later. That was not a good idea because they had to get up early the next day for the competition.

  
Speaking of the competition, they were all very excited, but also nervous because they would actually be getting scores for their entire show.


	12. Chapter 12

Saturday morning consisted of a lot of students rolling out of bed while groaning. They all did their morning routines with frowns on their faces. Breakfast was eaten slowly as the kids slouched in their chairs. Band shirts were lazily thrown on at the last second before they left out the door.

  
Competition days were very fun, but they were also very tiring. They had to get up early in order to go to morning practice. Practice was spent going over all of the trouble spots, which were exactly the parts they did not want to run, especially in the morning. It was already hot out, which meant that it was going to be miserable later.

  
A lot of the sections were wearing their section shirts that they had gotten a few days earlier. The sections usually created their own shirts each year and would wear them to band events. They cost money, of course, but there was a girl in the band whose father printed on shirts, so they got them cheap.

  
The clarinet band shirts were a lot different than they were the year before. While both years had a funny phrase, this year’s had a more animated feeling. They had taken a clipart photo of a clarinet and put it on a black shirt so that only the keys could be seen. Then, the phrase “Clarinets are like ninjas; you can’t hear us but we’re there” was printing next to it. The back contained all of their names and the year of their graduation. Virgil was at the top with asterisks by his name since he was section leader.

  
The flute band shirts were actually Harry Potter themed. Roman was sad because he wanted to do a Disney theme, but he was outvoted by everyone else. He still loved the “My flute chose me” slogan that they had picked.

  
Morning practice started at nine that morning. Despite it being really hot, people were determined to keep their competition tradition going. See, many people wore onesies to practice on competition days. They’d wear it all the way until they had to get dressed on the buses at the school where the competition would take place. Some would end up taking off their onesies at least halfway due to the heat, but some of them would stick it out and wear it the entire time.

  
Patton showed up in his cat onesie with Logan in his unicorn one. Roman convinced Virgil to wear a Pokémon onesie with him. Virgil wore a Haunter suit while Roman wore a Jigglypuff one. Thomas wore a blue dragon onesie.

  
Practice went by agonizingly slow. Everybody was insanely tired and wanted to just move on with the day already. Morning practices were always the worst.

  
After practice, they went in to eat lunch. Band parents volunteered to help set up in the cafeteria and serve the marchers food. Each competition, a different grade would be responsible for bringing in food for everyone. While some of the kids knew about this, the parents were the ones who dealt with it. They got emailed a list of things that they would need and the parents signed up for what they wanted to bring in. That was how they made sure they got everything that they needed while also not having too many people sign up for one thing.

  
During lunch, Patton talked about how excited he was for the competition. They were all very excited, but Patton didn’t seem to be as nervous as a lot of them were. They would be getting judged on their show today, which meant that they had to try more than they had ever before and not mess up. That’s what they told each other too. No “Do your best!” or “It’ll be okay, just have fun!” It was just “Don’t mess up.” Of course, they knew that it was impossible to have a perfect show, especially for the first competition, but they also knew that they had to do better than they have during the Friday night games.

  
Once lunch was over, the students had to grab all of their stuff and set it in a place where they could wait for the buses. They could just grab everything once the buses got there, but it was easier to already have everything together. Most people brought their uniform bag (with their competition pants inside instead of their Friday night pants...the competition pants were newer and cleaner) and boxes, instrument if they were a woodwind, bags, and blankets if they had them (it sometimes got cold on the bus rides home) outside and set them on the grass. However, Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, and Thomas set theirs in the band room since there were less people gathering their belongings there. While people would wear their marching shoes on the bus and leave their shoe boxes at the school for away football games, most people brought their boxes with them and wore a different pair of shoes until it was time to change during competitions. There would be time to go watch a few other bands perform after they finish and take off their uniforms, so they wanted to wear different shoes during that time.

  
While they were waiting for the buses to arrive, upperclassmen went around calling, “Did you all grab gauntlets? Don’t forget to grab gauntlets!”

  
“Oh shoot!” Roman exclaimed as he quickly stood up. “I forgot my gauntlets!”

  
He rushed into the small ensemble room to grab gauntlets. The others just laughed and shook their heads since they had theirs. Virgil never forgot because he was too anxious not to double check to see if he had everything. Patton always forgot, which was why he was thankful to have Logan because he would always get a pair for his cheerful boyfriend. Thomas didn’t have to wear gauntlets because he was in guard and they had their own outfits to wear (which were more pleasing to the eye than the marching band uniforms. Seriously, the color guard outfits were so pretty!).

  
Ah, yes, gauntlets. They were the bane of a marcher’s existence. Mr.Mike only made them wear them during competitions, which they were grateful for because they had seen other bands wear them for football games. Gauntlets were an extra piece of the uniform that went on their arms. They got put on overtop the wrist, coving the end of their sleeves on their jackets and the start of their gloves. They looked like an airplane wing that jut out of the arm. While they made them look more professional, they were very uncomfortable and hard to move in.

  
When the buses got there, everybody hurriedly loaded everything onto them, despite there being more than an half hour left before they had to leave. Some of them stayed on the bus to wait while the smarter ones went back inside to stay out of the heat. Those in onesies stayed inside as much as possible because of how hot out it was. Most of them had taken them off, but a few, like Patton and Roman, had kept them on.

  
The time it took before they left to go to the school of the competition seemed to take forever. Nobody liked to just sit around and wait, so for band kids it was agony. When they did finally leave, they still groaned because of the hour long bus ride they had to sit through. Of course, the DSs came out again and a competitive game of Mario Kart broke out. Thomas ended up coming out on top when they got to where they needed to be.

  
The school that the competition was at was called Altea High. Their mascot was a multicolored lion and the school colors were a majestic purple as if they thought of themselves as royalty. It was a very pretty shade of purple that made people sort of think of aliens when they saw it. It just seemed to have a certain glow that was different than any other shade of purple.

  
As soon as they got there, half of the bus got up and rushed outside in order to go find the restroom.

  
“I need to pee!” One girl said as she zoomed ahead of her friends.

  
The main characters walked to where the bathroom was. There was a sign posted by a door that pointed them to where they needed to go. When they found it, they saw that there was a line forming that even made its way slightly out of the entrance. They would have to wait a few minutes, but none of them had an emergency to deal with so they would be fine.

  
After the bathroom break, everyone had to get their uniforms on. They did it quickly so that they could get off the crowded bus. Outside where everyone was gathering, people could be heard asking how to put on the gauntlets. The freshmen and some of the sophomores had no idea how to work them, so the upperclassmen and uniform moms were helping out. The freshmen soon found how annoying gauntlets were. They were very tight around the arms and restricted large movements or else they could get messed up. Visuals would feel slightly more uncomfortable during the show.

  
Everyone was ready in a short amount of time, but they still had to wait a bit for their guides to show up to bring them to their practice field. Other bands were littered everywhere on the practice fields and they couldn’t take someone else’s spot. When the guides did show up, they were led to a patch of the field where bands from other schools were warming up. Sanders High Marching Band arched up on warm up section B. The students laid their instruments on the ground in front of them in order to do stretches. Some of them even took off their hats while others found it unnecessary. Stretches were a struggle because they had to be careful of birdies and gauntlets. They also couldn’t get their uniforms dirty or else they’d look bad for the competition and get a lecture from the uniform moms.

  
After stretching, they picked their instruments back up and did their normal warm up exercises. They went by slowly since everyone just wanted to get their performances over with. They had to suffer through these warm ups and play through their show in the arc before they could even think about their performance later.

  
Soon, it was time for their performance. They lined up in the order of their opening set and followed their guide to the stadium. Those who had to deal with props went with the pit to the front of the field so that they could set everything up. They had to wait for the previous band to finish their show before they could line up in their spots off the field.

  
An announcer told them that they were allowed to start setting up their props and preplacing themselves on the field. The sounds of tapping from a snare drum sounded and they all started to go to their opening set on the field. Once they got there, they did the warm up they did on the field. This was them just playing some randoms notes while the percussion did their own exercise. When that was done, they turned around towards the front and put their arms at sword position, which was their opening visual. Sword position was just having their arms straight at their sides while their instruments were at their sides as well. For the flutes and clarinets, they looked like their instruments were extensions of their arms.

  
The announcer spoke up on the speakers again when they finished their last minute warm ups, “Next up is Sanders High Marching Band. Their show is entitled ‘Personality Flawed.’”

  
The announcer stated some more stuff as well, such as a little bit about their show, and then mentioned who the band director was. After the announcement was over, the field commanders did their salute. The crowd clapped as they ran to their podiums.

  
The show started out alright. The tempo was steady and most of the rhythms were spot on. They did have dynamic problems and times when the melody was covered up by other instruments, but it was a good start for the first contest.

  
The second movement didn’t go too terribly either. The duet was played wonderfully and the band was able to get through everything with only a small tear in the music in the beginning that was quickly resolved. The last note was played and Roman immediately leaned over to kiss Virgil. It was expected by those from the town of Sanders, but those from elsewhere were pleasantly surprised. The crowd roared in those few seconds before the third movement was started.

  
The movement where some things went wrong.

  
Their third movement seemed to start off alright, but the band knew that things were going badly. There were some sets that were majorly messed up. Some lines were not straight and some curves were not curved. Then, a major tear broke out in the middle. It got a little better as it went along, but they never really recovered completely.

  
There was one set that they were all fearing because messing it up would be tragic. The band members had to suddenly start marching to the side and actually go through each other. At first, practice held a lot of accidents where people ran into each other or got hit by different instruments. It had gotten a lot better, but it was still not perfect.

  
Of course, they did end up messing it up when they needed to not do so.

  
The lines were not straight at all during the move. It was like not a single person was even trying to guide. To make it worse, a girl from the clarinet section ended up getting hit with a trombone.

  
The fact that they had done so well only to mess it up in the end baffled them. Tears were running down some of the band’s faces as they marched off the fields. Those who had to go get the props off the field did so without really knowing what they were doing.

  
They just felt...numb.

  
Getting back to the buses, they put their instruments away and took their uniforms off. They were allowed to go back to the stadium in order to watch the rest of the bands perform before awards were started. When people got to the point where they could get on the bleachers, they had to wait until the band who was currently performing to be finished. Walking on the bleachers created a lot of noise, so they prevented that by only letting people on and off between the shows. When they were allowed to find a seat, the entire band sat on one part of the bleachers together.

  
They were also allowed to get food and drinks at the concession stands. They had the good kind of popcorn at Altea High, with butter and happiness, so a lot of people were getting that.

  
There were only a few AA bands that had to perform still. The others watched in mostly silence as they were amazed by cool visuals and stunning music. However, they were able to pick out mistakes in marching and music every now and then. None of the bands were going to be perfect.

  
The final band of the competition was the band of the hosting school. They weren’t allowed to win anything or get a score on the categories they were judged on, but they would know if they got a one or not. Each band got a score out of 300 (which would be a perfect show) and whatever range their score was in determined if you got a one, two, three, four, or five. Five was so bad that you would practically have to not show up to get that. A one was what qualified a band for states. Getting a one at states was the best thing you could do in the marching band season, along with getting grand champion overall at a regular competition.

  
Everyone clapped as the final band finished their performance. There would be a little bit of time before awards since the judges had to tally everything up and figure out who got awards and who didn’t. Pretty soon the bands would be making a lot of noise.

  
“This is so exciting!” Patton exclaimed.

  
“It’s not like we’re going to win anything,” Virgil stated with a blank look on his face. While all of them were disappointed in their failure of a third movement, Virgil was affected the most. He hated to lose, so he was taking it very hard. He had no hope for awards. The only thing he was excited for at this point was the cheering and shouting that would start in a few minutes.

  
“You don’t know that!” Roman disagreed, “There could have been worse bands. Maybe we did good compared to everyone el-.”

  
“Incorrect,” Logan interrupted, “By watching the double A bands, they pulled off a lot of their visuals much better than we did. They didn’t have major tears like we did. We’re an A band, and Altea High has the A bands compete against the double A bands.”

  
“You guys are such downers,” Patton frowned. He quickly perked up again, however, because of how excited he was for the cheers.

  
“We still had fun at the times things went right in our show,” Thomas said optimistically.

  
At that moment, a few seniors from the band stood in front of their section on the bleachers.

  
“Who’s ready to scream and cheer?” One of them yelled.

  
“Yeah!” Everyone yelled.

  
“Then stand up!”

  
Sanders High Marching Band leapt to their feet, ready to cause some chaos. The other bands in the bleachers were doing the same thing. They knew that they would have some similar cheers, but there were also some that were unique to each band.

  
“We’re going to start out with roller coaster!” A male senior told them. “Ready? Pshhhhhh…”

  
They raised their arms up above their heads and pretended to pull down the harness of a roller coaster, all while making the shooshing noise. Once they were “strapped in,” they threw their arms back above their heads and started to go “whoooooaaa….” Then, the senior who was leading the cheer swiftly leaned to the right and the rest of the band followed by leaning to the left (since they were facing the opposite way than the seniors leading the cheers), making their “whoa!” louder and faster.

  
Next, they yelled Long Train. They didn’t have their instruments, so they screamed their parts. They still did their dance moves too. It was very loud and very fun.

  
After that, they started a yelling war. Sanders High Marching Band started out by yelling “We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you?!” They would point to a band near them at the last word and they would respond with the same thing. It kept going around to different bands until some got tired with it. The last band who was very enthusiastic won. It happened to be a band two groups away from them. Sanders High just wasn’t in the mood to keep going.

  
There were a few cheers they did that involved Spongebob. The seniors yelled “who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” and everyone responded with “SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!” They went through the entire theme song like that. Then, they sang the F.U.N. song from Spongebob.

  
A few more cheers were done before they had to quiet down for awards. The field commanders lined up on the field at certain yard lines, still in their uniforms. As the band was sitting there waiting for the first award to be handed out, Roman went to comfort his emo, who was still feeling gloomy. He smiled softly as Virgil leaned against his shoulder, too tired and upset to deal with sitting up. Roman smoothly slid his arm around his boyfriend, making it more comfortable for both of them.

  
“Our first award is for…”

  
The awards started. They first gave awards out to B and C bands. Then, they moved on to giving those same awards to the A and AA bands. Each time an award was announced, Sanders High Marching Band hoped that they pulled something off. However, their school’s name was never called. Grand champions were awarded and they were never even thought of.

  
“The bands who qualified for states consist of the following:...”

  
A list of about 8 bands were called out. Each band named caused Sanders High to feel like they were being repeatedly punched in the stomach.

  
“We didn’t even get a one,” Roman frowned.

  
“I told you nothing good was going to happen,” Virgil sneered.

  
“We’ll do better next time!” Patton tried to cheer them up.

  
Everyone stood up after awards and exited the bleachers. Virgil cling to Roman’s hand, not wanting to get separated from him. Somebody from across the mass of band geeks called out to tell them that they were cute. Gay couples were a big thing for certain groups in the bands...mainly the LGBT band kids, but some others appreciated it as well.

  
As they passed one band who was holding a trophy, Patton politely told them good job.

  
“Tch, losers,” the one holding the trophy sneered.

  
As they walked away, Logan tried his best to comfort the now depressed Patton. Roman wanted to go over and punch the guy, but they all knew that that would be a bad idea and had to stop him.

  
“Did he really just say that?” Thomas asked, bewildered. “That’s so rude!!”

  
“I know, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” Logan said.

  
Roman saw how sad Virgil was as they walked back to the buses. As soon as they were sitting in their seats, he wrapped his arm back around him and pulled him into his side. He could feel a few tears hit his skin as Virgil pressed his face to his shoulder and neck.

  
“It’ll be okay,” Roman whispered to him. Virgil didn’t respond, but Roman knew he had heard him.

  
Their first competition really didn’t go as well as they had hoped it would. The fact that they had not even gotten a one crushed them. They could only hope that next time would be better. 


	13. Chapter 13

The entirety of practice before the game on Friday was filled with anticipation for when the eighth graders would arrive. Half of the band was excited to try and convince them to join marching band the next year while the other half dreaded meeting new people.

  
When the eighth graders were led to the practice field by one of the middle school band instructors, the high schoolers set up on the middle of the field where they would be standing while playing. The eighth graders were then placed on the field in between the two blocks they had formed. They practiced playing the Fight Song and Funky Town together so that the eighth graders could get used to the sound on the field. Some of them were amazed to find that the high schoolers had the songs memorized. The middle schoolers had flip folders attached to their instruments that held their music.

  
After they practiced, they were allowed to break off into groups in order to introduce themselves to the eighth graders who played the same instrument. They spread out around the field.

  
“Okay,” Virgil said once his section had included all of the eighth graders in their circle, “we’re going to state our names, grade, and a fun fact about ourselves. Do you guys want us to start or does anyone else want to go?”

  
The eighth graders just stared at him, not knowing what to say.

  
“We’ll go first then,” Virgil sighed. “I’m Virgil and I’m a junior. I am the section leader. I guess a fun fact about me would be that...um...my favorite band is Evanescence.”

  
They went around in the circle introducing themselves. The high schoolers went first, all of them being overly enthusiastic, as most band kids were. Then, it was the small ones’ turn. A lot of them were quieter, speaking so softly that they could not be heard. One kid towards the end, however, had some more confidence.

  
“I’m Rex, I’m in the eighth grade obviously, and I’m super duper gay!”

  
“Oh, hey, so is Virgil,” one of the high school girls in the section told him. Virgil groaned quietly, not wanting everyone to talk about his sexuality.

  
Rex winked at him. “If you ever want to go out, hit me up.”

  
“No,” Virgil said.

  
“Oh, don’t be like that.”

  
“I have a boyfriend.”

  
Rex frowned at that, giving up for now. Virgil was thankful that he didn’t persist in flirting with him.

  
“Anyway, raise your hand high if you are planning on doing marching band next year,” Virgil demanded. About half of the kids raised their hands, Rex thankfully not being one of them. Since nobody would be graduating at the end of that year, their section would grow by a lot next year. That was good because maybe they’d actually be heard sometimes...hahahahaha no, that was a great joke though.

  
Practice ended and the high schoolers went to go get their uniforms on. The eighth graders were left in the study hall room to wait for the time when they’d head down to the stadium. That time came about twenty minutes later. The marching band lined up in parade block, going straight to parade rest when they saw Mr.Mike was getting ready to have them go. The eighth graders gathered around behind the group, trying to get into similar straight lines, but failing. They would follow behind the band as they marched to cadences on the way to the stadium.

  
As they marched down, the eighth graders could be heard by those in the back laughing about their cadences. The things they shouted were silly for sure, but the constant laughter and talking was kind of annoying.

  
Soon, they made it all the way to the track inside of the stadium. The high schoolers were allowed to go sit down first because they had to show the young ones where to sit. Once they were settled down, the eighth graders were allowed to go find a place to sit. The high schoolers were trying to get them situated by them so that they had older kids to help them with what was going on. Virgil and Roman sat by each other, an eighth grader of their respective instrument on their other sides. Rex ended up sitting nearby, right in front of them but two bleachers down.

  
The middle schoolers had to sit in the beachers while the marching band got set up off the field for pregame. As they were marching down the field, they noticed that the band from the other school had arrived and that some of them were watching them from outside their buses while they waited for everyone to get in uniform. Those who noticed suddenly felt the need to prove that they have a great pregame show.

  
Everything went smoothly that time. The football players came out when they were supposed to, all of the announcements played on time, and they were able to play everything in the correct order without forgetting the changes. Finally, they had a successful pregame show.

  
Settling back into the bleachers, most of the band had to find spots on the side of the stands to put their hats so that they, or the eighth graders, wouldn’t end up touching a birdie. There wasn’t enough room for hats to be set on the bleachers with so many people there that day.

  
The game started and immediately the other team managed to score a touchdown.

  
“I can already tell that this is going to be a terrible game,” Virgil told Roman, who he was leaning against in an attempt to stay comfortable. He knew that he would just have to stand up again to play some type of tune, but he took what he could get.

  
“It might turn around,” Roman disagreed.

  
Turn around it did. The first touchdown seemed to be a fluke. Sanders High School scored many touchdowns before the half ended while the other team only scored one more. The home team was leading by a lot.

  
“Are you guys ready to perform?” Roman asked his section of eighth graders. Many of them nodded at him while a few shook their heads. “It’ll be fun! Just you wait!”

  
They waited for the other band to perform first. Like most bands, it was a very cool show. The music was very fun to listen to. During the performance, the upperclassmen had to keep asking the lowerclassmen to stop talking so that they could watch the show without distractions. They were supposed to be respectful to the other band. There was even a point when a senior had to tell another senior to stop talking because they were being loud as well.

  
The eighth graders were waiting on the opposite side of the field. They would enter and get in their spots after the band was in position.

  
When it was their turn, the band got lined up in their sets for movement two. They had enough time to do their second movement, which was their shortest movement, and the eighth grade night pieces. They wanted to show the eighth graders how fun putting on a show could be, so Mr.Mike wanted them to witness their second movement because of how many visuals were in it.

  
It went very smoothly, which they were all grateful for. After the tragedy that was considered their first competition, they were worried that they would mess up other parts of the show as well. It was a silly fear because here they were doing it well. It was almost as if they hadn’t had that bad performance at all.

  
Of course, they did have that performance, and not a single one of them would ever forget about it.

  
Virgil and Roman had to stand in the front during their duet again because it was a Friday night game and they didn’t have the props. The eighth graders were standing really close to them on the sideline. Some of them were focused on watching the two playing their parts, which they both tried to ignore so that they didn’t mess up. Luckily, most of the middle schoolers were more interested in seeing what cool visuals the marchers would do next. They didn’t seem too interested in Roman and Virgil until the very end of the piece. It wasn’t surprising when all of their heads snapped to the couple when Roman ended the song by kissing Virgil. A gasp could even be heard from a few of them. They stayed in that position for a moment, but hurriedly moved to their spot in the block when the percussion started playing a cadence.

  
Once the band was in position, the eighth graders were instructed to go to where they were on the field during practice. When they were all ready, the percussion started Fight Song. The eighth graders already had their instruments up, but they were taught when to come in after the opening cadence. The high schoolers did their fancy horns up, then started playing. It went well, of course, because the marching band was louder than the eighth graders, but the young ones still did a good job. The audience clapped for them once they finished.

  
Next, Lillie counted off Funky Town. The count off was different than what they were used to in the marching band because the eighth graders didn’t know how to begin with a more subtle one. Lillie counted four steady beats for them instead. When the song started, the audience got really into it. It even looked like some of the kids from the student section were singing the words to the song, but the band couldn’t hear them. They were too busy trying not to mess up the song.

  
All in all, eighth grade night was a success. The eighth graders left the field first, going back the way they came. The marching band marched off to the left, towards their stands. They were able to take their hats and gloves back off after the show.

  
As they were taking their hats off, the eighth graders came to say goodbye to them. They wouldn’t be spending the last half of the game with them, but some of them would continue to stay to watch the rest with their family. The middle school band teacher brought them back to the band room, where they would put their instruments back in their cases and be allowed to leave.

  
Third quarter started. Roman grabbed Virgil’s hand and led him to where part of the band crowded around to do cadences. It was taking the percussion a while to start them, so a few of the eighth graders who were going to watch the rest of the game were able to make it back in time to see them. They looked on in confusion, not understanding what was about to happen.

  
DYA-TA-TA!

  
The first cadence started. The band started dancing as one, all of their movements perfectly timed. The eighth graders were surprised, but quickly started to enjoy it. The student section could be heard cheering from the left. A few people even tried to dance as well, laughing every time they started a new part of the cadence, causing the new timers to mess up.

  
After the cadences were over, Virgil and Roman found the rest of their friends. The five of them headed to the concession stands. As they were on their way, a few of the eighth graders who stayed approached them. Virgil groaned in his head when he noticed that Rex was one of them.

  
“Hey, we wanted to say that we really enjoyed the part of your show that you marched today!” A female eighth grader told them. “It was really cool!”

  
“Thank you!” Patton grinned. “You all did great today too!”

  
“What instruments do you guys play?” Thomas asked.

  
“And what are your names?” Logan asked, annoyed by the thought of having to refer to them as “the boy,” “the girl,” and “the other girl” in his mind.

  
“I’m Chelsea and I’m a baritone,” the girl said.

  
“I’m Stella and I’m a trombone,” the other girl stated.

  
“I’m Rex and I play the clarinet,” Rex said.

  
Virgil shared a knowing look with Roman.

  
“That’s so cool!” Patton exclaimed. “Are you guys doing marching band next year?”

  
“Yes!” The two girls cheered.

  
“I wasn’t going to at first,” Rex said. He seemed to contemplate for a moment, but then his gaze fell on Virgil. “But now I’m kind of thinking about it. There are some interesting people in it.”

  
Stella saw the odd way that Rex was looking at Virgil, so she spoke up. “Rex, I think that you’re making him uncomfortable. Besides, he’s probably a few years older than you. He seems like an upperclassman to me.”

  
“Age doesn’t matter,” Rex smirked. “I think he would enjoy being with me.”

  
“I told you that I have a boyfriend,” Virgil frowned.

  
“And I’m literally right here,” Roman added.

  
“Yeah, but once you break up, I’ll be there to make him feel better,” Rex had a cocky look on his face.

  
“Even if we did break up, I don’t think that I would like you like that. I’m very sorry, but I think that you should search for somebody who’s more of your own age for now,” Virgil tried to let the boy down easy. He didn’t want the kid to hate him because he didn’t want him to try and get any type of revenge.

  
“And we’re not going to break up,” Roman confidently said. He knew that Virgil was the one for him, so he had no doubts that they would never break up fully, even if it was inevitable that they would fight at least a little bit in the future.

  
“Whatever, we’ll see what happens in the next year I guess,” Rex said. He winked at Virgil before leaving with Chelsea and Stella.

  
“I’m quitting marching band,” Virgil groaned.

  
“No you’re not!” Roman scolded him, mocking offense.

  
“I know, but I don’t want to deal with him.”

  
“It’ll be okay, Virgil!” Patton reassured him.

  
“Yeah!” Roman agreed. “I’ll be there to stop him from any funny business!”

  
“I’m not completely helpless!” Virgil yelled. “I just don’t want to suffer.”

  
The others laughed, causing Virgil to break out in small giggles too. He couldn’t be sad around his friends. They always made him feel better.

  
“I guess it won’t be too bad if you’re there,” Virgil admitted.

  
“We’ll be there too!” Thomas said.

  
“Yes, yes we will,” Patton nodded.

  
Virgil smiled. Despite eighth grade night having a lot of downs, his friends were making it not so bad. He really was grateful for them.

  
By the end of the game, Sanders High crushed the visiting team. It was a great win, causing them all to cheer as loudly as they could. It got them pumped, proving that their football team really was a lot better than they had been the previous years.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sips some apple juice*  
> Where have you guys been for the last 5-6 months?  
> ...  
> Sorry about not updating at all since February. I lost my motivation for this fanfiction for a while there, but with marching band season starting again, I think that I’m going to be able to finish it soon! In fact, I’m thinking about the next chapter after this one being the final part!

A lot happened in the next few weeks. The most memorable was the competition two weeks after eighth grade night, but another competition came before that. The competition they had to perform in the day after eighth grade night was the one that they hosted. They couldn’t get a score, but luckily, they did end up getting a one. They qualified for states competition.

  
The next game ended in another win as well. It was nowhere near as interesting as the previous game had been, but they were still glad that they had ended up winning.

  
Anyway, the next competition was a remarkable one. They had gotten to the school very early that Saturday, still tired from the game the day before. The morning practice went by slowly. All of them were waiting for lunch to come so that they could relax and eat for a little bit. Once it did come, most of them ate slowly, feeling better now that they weren’t outside.

  
“I just want this day to be over,” Virgil muttered.

  
“Hey, just think about it!” Patton encouraged. “Today could be the day that we do great in a competition!”

  
“I doubt it.”

  
After lunch, they packed everything up and left to go to the competition. It was about forty five minutes away, causing a lot of people to grow anxious as they thought about how their performance would turn out. They did not need a repeat of the first one, that was for sure.

  
When they got there, they did their usual routine of putting their uniforms on and getting their instruments out. After that, they went outside, got a plume inserted into their hats, and went to wait with the rest of the band. Once the student guides from the school they were at showed up, they were led to their warmup area.

  
Warmups were rough. They had to do the first one three times before Mr.Mike was satisfied. The fourth one was played four times, and even then it still wasn’t great.

  
“Focus, guys! If you don’t focus, we won’t do well!” Mr.Mike told them in a loud voice, almost to the point of shouting.

  
Playing through the actual music of their show went a lot better than their warmups. Most of them managed to remember where all of the visuals and turns went. Some of them messed up occasionally, but they soon found where they were supposed to be in the music.

  
After their warmup time was over, they were brought to where the stadium was on the other side of the school. Another band was marching at the moment, so they had to wait a few minutes before being able to take their own places. They did a few warmup exercises on the side like usual, sighing in relief when those ones went better than the first ones had. Then, they set up everything on the field when they were told that they were allowed to. Finally, they got in their places, ready to start.

  
An announcement was made to introduce their band. It was short, not giving them much more time to catch their breaths for a few extra seconds.

  
They began. The piece started out smoothly, and they were hoping that it would stay that way. Their goal was to have no large tears in their music and no major mishaps in the field. It would be difficult, but if they all put their minds to it and focused like Mr.Mike said, then they could pull it off.

  
Movement two went even better, but to the band it wasn’t good. They couldn’t tell how it all looked altogether, but to some of them, they felt that they did a trash job of marching. In reality, it was amazing. The crowd was loving it. They didn’t even notice when Roman skipped one of his quarter notes on accident during the duet. Anyone who might have thought that something didn’t seem right with it was soon distracted by how touching the kiss was.

  
The third movement went by surprisingly well. Most of the visuals went by amazingly, save for one or two small mess ups, and the music didn’t have any tears in it like it did during the first competition. As the last note rang through the air, the band couldn’t help but think that that was the best run of their third movement so far.

  
The crowd cheered as they marched off the field. Another band was starting to come in after them so that they could do their performance. A lot of the kids from Sanders High wanted to stay and watch, but they knew that they had to go back to the buses to change out of their uniform. They would be able to go watch more bands later like usual.

  
“Good job guys! I could tell that you were focusing during that performance! I’m proud of you all!” Mr.Mike grinned, happy by the show they put on.

  
“I thought it was kind of trash,” Virgil whispered to his friends so that Mr.Mike couldn’t hear. “Especially second movement. It felt like a disaster.”

  
“What do you mean?” Patton asked loudly once their band director was out of earshot. “It was amazing! The music was wonderful, the visuals were great, and your duet sounded beautiful!”

  
“Maybe it was just from where you were that it felt bad, Virgil,” Logan suggested. “If you or someone around you messed something up, it might have looked badto you. However, the judges can’t tell when some things are wrong, such as if your line or curve needed to be further back more. I’m sure it was all fine.”

  
“He’s right!” Thomas agreed. “It looked great from my viewpoint.”

  
“I’m sure we got a one this time!” Roman smiled, throwing his arm around Virgil’s shoulder.

  
“I hope so,” Virgil sighed. All he wanted was something great, other than his love life, to come out of that season. So far they had only done a terrible performance at their first competition and do well at the one they couldn’t get scores at.

  
“Come on, let’s go get our uniforms off so that we can go watch the other bands,” Thomas said after they gave back the birdies. They did just that: uniforms went back on their hangers and bags, instruments were put away, shoes were stored in their boxes, and the hats were placed in their bins.

  
The five of them walked back to the stadium together, but Patton had to go his separate way eventually. He had to go with the other field commanders to stand on the field and collect any awards they might gain. That was why Patton still wore his uniform while everyone else had taken theirs off. The stamps on their hands that they had gotten when they had arrived allowed them to get in. They made their way to the visitor stands where the bands sat after their turns to perform. They weren’t allowed to get on the bleachers until the band playing was done, though, so they had to wait a few minutes.

  
While watching the other bands, Virgil found himself loving the show performed by a school named Midgard High. Their show was themed off of superheroes, and it was very extraordinary. At the same time, he also felt scared. If he loved this show this much, maybe the judges would too and pick them over Sanders High. It didn’t help that they were a double A band. His anxiety built as he heard the crowd of parents on the home side of the field cheer loudly.

  
Soon, all of the bands had gone. The cheers like roller coaster and spongebob were started up again, this time with a lot more intensity now that they didn’t have the crushing weight of knowing they did horrible on their shoulders. They called out to their field commanders, who were standing in their spots on the field as awards were about to begin. The field commanders turned around at the same time to wave at them, a grin on their faces.

  
All of the bands quieted down as the announcer went on the speakers. He told them that everything was accounted for and that they had the results. They started with the C and B bands, which did not matter much to Sanders High. They waited impatiently, just wanting to find out if they did good or not.

  
“Now to A and double A,” the announcer said. He mentioned who sponsored each award as he told them as well.

  
The first award was for percussion. Unfortunately, the award for best percussion went to Midgard High. Their cheers rang through the stadium as their field commanders gave their salute and collected the trophy.

  
The next award was for the color guard. All of the bands waited in anticipation for the winner, wanting to know who had the best visuals from their amazing color guard friends. The color guards themselves were sitting with their breaths held, nervous for the answer.

  
“Sanders High!” The voice over the speakers called. Everyone from the band stood up, cheering loudly. Thomas and the other color guard members were freaking out, tears in their eyes. The seniors in front had to force everyone to quiet down after a few seconds so that they wouldn’t miss the next awards.

  
One other award before seeing the order of who did best in the group went to a different A band. At first it looked like they had more competition for first place, but the next award went to them as well, and that was for third place.

  
Second place was announced next. Everyone was silent at this point. The crowd knew that it was probably either going to be Midgard High or Sanders High. However, they had no idea which it would be.

  
“Second place goes to...Midgard High!”

  
The cheers from Midgard High were loud, but it was also obvious that they weren’t as excited as they wanted to be. They had really thought that they had first place in the bag. Since they were one of the last bands to perform, they had no idea who could have possibly beaten them.

  
“Guys,” Roman brought the attention of his friends to him, “if we did as good as Patton and Mr.Mike said we did, do you think that...we could be first place?”

  
“There are four other bands that it could be as well, but I think that there is a good chance that we could be,” Logan stated.

  
Virgil couldn’t say anything. He was too anxious to see what would happen. Looking out at their field commanders, he could spot Patton gripping tightly onto Lilly’s arm from where they were looped, as that was how they were supposed to stand together. The field commanders were just as nervous as them.

  
“Finally, our last award for the A and double A group is first place. This award was sponsored by…” The rest of the words were blocked out by everyone as they waited in anticipation. It was a very nerve wracking time.

  
Finally, the announcer shouted who the first place winner was.

  
“Sanders High!”

  
The stadium almost shook by the boom of cheering that was brought about. Band kids were hugging each other tightly, tears actually running down some of their cheeks.

  
“This means there’s a good chance that we’re the grand champions too!” Thomas realized. “We might have won this whole thing!!”

  
After the different groups for their separate awards, three more awards were given out to all of the bands together. It was places 1-3 overall, meaning whoever got first was the grand champions of the competition.

  
Just their luck, the third place spot went to the first place winner of the C and B group. That settled it. They already knew who the first and second place winners were. People were full on sobbing tears of happiness now.

  
Second place went to Midgard High, as it would not have made any sense if it went to anyone else.

  
Finally, the moment they were all waiting for came. Every word rang through the stadium as the announcer told them the last place.

  
“And your grand champions are...SANDERS HIGH!”

  
That day had to have been the best day of their marching band lives. They didn’t even need to listen to the announcer list off who qualified for states, as they already knew they had done so again.

Sanders High School Marching Band was invited down to the field to get medals showing that they won. The field commanders came over as well, holding the trophies they won up high. Lilly held the gigantic one; the one meant for the grand champions.

  
The band stood in a large cluster around Mr.Mike as he came onto the field. He gave a tearful speech about how proud he was.

  
“You guys should all be proud of yourselves as well,” he told them. “Think about how you’re feeling right now. That’s how we want to feel every week. Today we put on our best show yet. You all put maximum effort into your marching and playing, and it showed. This will not be a moment any of us will forget, I can assure you that. Remember this feeling, and let it push you to keep doing the same thing you did today.”

  
By the end of his speech, most, if not all, of the band was crying. Roman and Virgil were holding onto each other, tears of pure joy running down their faces. None of them could believe what was happening. Even Logan, who was letting an ecstatic Patton cry into his shoulder, had a tear or two in his eyes. Thomas was full on crying as well, as his solo had helped get them that award too.

  
The ride back to the school was loud and obnoxious, but nobody seemed to care. People were singing and shouting the entire way back. It would be thought that the poor bus drivers would have been annoyed and angry, but they were just as excited as the others were. Once they got back into their city, they started honking their horns, despite it beginning to get later into the night. The entire city needed to know how proud they should be of their band, even if they didn’t get as much recognition as the football team and other sports did.

  
Getting back to the school, the buses passed the entrance to the parking lot where the band room was. Instead, they drove to the other side of the school, and they made their way to where the victory bell stood by the stadium. They all rushed off of the buses as soon as they stopped, running as fast as they could to the victory bell. The seniors climbed up to the platform of where it was, waiting for everyone to gather. Once they were all there, and lots of people had their phones out to record the wonderful moment, the seniors placed their hands on the bell and pushed it.

  
A loud ring sounded in the air, not going unheard by those living in houses nearby. The entire band cheered as it rang multiple times. They kept pushing it, trying to make the moment last forever.

  
“WHO ARE WE?!” One senior yelled.

  
“SANDERS!!” The rest of the band screamed.

  
“WHAT ARE WE?!”

  
“VICTORIOUS!!”

  
They all stood there as the last of the rings died off, living in the moment before they had to bring everything back into the band room and go home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought upon a lot of emotions for me. This scene closely resembles what happened during one of the competitions during my freshman year of high school. Of course, I changed a lot of things, had to rewrite the cheer when they’re ringing the bell from what we yell to something that worked for them (even if it’s not as catchy), and wasn’t able to fully bring about how emotional the moment was.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve made it to the last chapter! I just wanted to say that this has been both very fun and really stressful to write. Thanks for reading as far as you did, as that tells me that you hopefully liked it! I’m a sucker for comments, so don’t be shy to tell me how you felt about the story, even if it’s to give me some criticism!

This was it. The moment that the entire marching band season was led up to. The final performance, also known as the most important one. For months they had been preparing to put on this one, single show. It was the day of the state’s competition. They would perform their marching show one last time for a group of judges, who would then go determine whether they did well enough to receive a one, the superior rating, or not. If they did, then it was proof that everything they had worked for was worth it, and that they could take pride in themselves. If they didn’t earn the one, they would feel disappointment, even when the band director later tells them that they should still feel good about everything they had put forward in that season.

  
Every practice led up to this moment. The half time shows during football games were practically practice run throughs of what they were about to do now. The other competitions were what qualified them for state’s, but none of them were nearly as important as this show would be. This was the deciding factor of the season.

  
Patton nervously gulped as he and the other field commanders did their salute. The crowd cheered as they did so. Then, they made their way to their respective podiums. Climbing up on top of it, Patton turned to face the band, who were standing as still as they could be in their set positions on the field. The opening set looked beautiful, but Patton could see one or two spots where interval spacings were weird. Patton would be able to see every mistake that was made from where he was. He hoped that the judges weren’t too nitpicky, but he knew that that was wishful thinking. While they didn’t know exactly what was supposed to happen in spots, they were bound to notice when things looked terrible.

  
Turning his head slightly, Patton watched Lilly get the opening tempo. She started to move her hands, counting them off. Patton followed with his hands immediately, making sure that his hits were in line with hers. They did not need any tempo issues because of him today, so he was going to pay extra attention to what was going on.

  
Most of the band members were concentrating so well on trying to march their sets and play their music that they seemed to not be aware of the rest of the world. The show was going well, though there were a few times when small mistakes were made. At one point, somebody had forgotten about a hold. They had started to march to their next set when they realized what they did. Luckily, they stopped as soon as they saw what happened instead of trying to go back to where they were supposed to be. It would have been worse if they had moved some more.

  
The flute and clarinet duet was performed better than it had ever been performed before. They had tuned very well before beginning the show, so they were almost perfect with that. The notes flowed easily, complimenting each other. Not a single mistake could be heard by the audience. It was beautiful. The piece was so pretty that even the two playing it had tears in their eyes when it was over. That was the best they had ever felt while playing it. Neither of them would ever forget that moment.

  
The crowd roared when the kiss happened at the end of the duet. Roman had almost forgotten to kiss his boyfriend like he was supposed to due to how proud he felt at how well it went. Luckily, he had remembered just in time, and he had pulled the boy in close at the last second. It worked, and the crowd was pleased.

  
When the entire show was over, the band marched off the field. They headed back to the bus to change out of their uniforms. As they went back, they talked about everything that they had felt gone wrong with the show.

  
“I swear that there was a tear in the middle of song three.”

  
“I heard it too! The picture was messed up too, but luckily we managed to fix everything by the time we got to the next hold.”

  
“The lines we had during song one definitely were not straight. The judges will not be happy about that.”

  
“At least the solos were good.”

  
“Yes, the solos was great! Thomas also caught his flag at the end of his routine during the duet! I get that, but what about the rest of the show? How bad could it have been?”

  
“I feel like it was bad.”

  
“What if we get a two? Or even a three??!!”

  
Patton frowned as he listened to these comments. He did not think any of the show was bad. Yeah, there had been that small tear during movement three, and, yeah, some of the lines hadn’t been as straight as they could have been, but that didn’t mean the show was horrible. Those were just small parts that would be overlooked by how wonderful the rest of it was. Nothing was ever perfect, much less a marching band show, so why were they beating themselves up over such tiny details? Patton believed that they would get a one, and he hoped that the others in the band would see that they would too, and maybe they would finally be proud of what they had done.

  
Virgil and Roman quickly changed out of their uniforms when they got to their bus. They carefully folded the pants and placed them, the jacket, and the gauntlets into their uniform bags. Their hats and gloves went into their hat boxes, their instruments in their cases, and their shoes were exchanged for the casual ones that they had stored in their shoe boxes. As soon as both of them were ready to go, they made their way off of the bus in order to walk to the stadium. They held each other’s hands as they walked, living in the moment.

  
“I can’t believe that that was the last time we will ever perform that show,” Virgil said.

  
“I know right!” Roman exclaimed. “Frankly, I’m going to miss it.”

  
“Me too.”

  
“Even though you had to play the solo?”

  
Virgil blushed a little bit. “Yeah, I’ll miss that too. I have to admit that it was sort of cool. I feel...good about myself whenever I play it. I feel like I’m enough of a person and player when I realize that I am the one playing the clarinet solo.”

  
Roman beamed. “Great! I like the sound of that! I’ll miss our duet too, but at least I am still able to kiss you!”

  
Virgil shook his head, laughing. He let Roman lean over to place a small kiss to his cheek, not caring that they were nearing the away stands at this point where people from the band that was already seated there could possibly see.

  
They had to wait by the stairs of the bleachers with a few of the other members of their band. Another band was currently performing, and they couldn’t walk on the stands yet because it made too much noise. The two of them turned to watch the band, Roman wrapping his arms around Virgil from behind, setting his chin on the other boy’s shoulder. They were interested in seeing how this band would do. Since it was state’s, they would not be receiving awards such as grand champions or anything like that. There were so many bands performing that day that it would have taken too much time, space, and money. A few bands would perform, get their scores, and then leave before the next set of bands would arrive to perform. The band playing on the field at the moment were the second to last band to perform. They were doing pretty good, and the music was a nice bop.

  
Once that band was finished playing, the people waiting to enter the bleachers climbed up the steps. They found where other people in their band was sitting, and they took their own spots in the same area. Like every other competition, they would be sitting with their respective bands.

  
The last band started their performance. Virgil and Roman watched in awe, as they really enjoyed the visuals they were seeing. The color guard flags were magnificent too, and they kind of wanted to steal a few of them. The flags were giant, and they were purely silver and sparkly. It matched well with the performance, which was some type of American themed show. There were speeches from American influencers such as Martin Luther King Jr. and a few others. It was a very emotional show, and many people were feeling many different emotions at once at the end. The band even crab stepped at one point, which usually only percussionists do!

  
Thomas could be heard from a row behind them, trying to keep quiet about his fanboying over the color guard. Patton and Logan sat next to him, trying not to laugh at Thomas’ suffering.

  
Finally, the last band finished their performance. A few moments passed while all of the bands there getting more and more anxious. The judges would be finalizing their decisions right now, and they would be finding who got a one and who didn’t. They would have to take the scores from all of the judges for each band and put them together in order to see what the bands got.

  
The minutes ticked by, until, thank the universe, a voice rang out over the speakers. They thanked everyone for coming, gave some details about how they were going to give out the scores, and then went straight into it. They were going in alphabetical order, which of course meant that Sanders High was last.

  
“Canal High School...one!”

  
The band to their left boomed out in cheers. They were the last band to have performed, and they totally deserved that one.

  
“Potter High School...one!”

  
More cheers rang out. It was the band that had performed before Sanders High, so they had no idea what their show was. They were still happy for the band.

  
“Ramsey High School...two!”

  
The cheers that came from the band that performed right after Sanders High did was halfhearted. They were bummed about getting a two, especially when they felt that they had given a great show.

  
“Sanders High School!”

  
This was the moment. It was the moment that they were all waiting for. Anxiety gripped all of the members of the band. Virgil felt like he was going to puke at the anticipation. Roman was going through any mistakes that they could have made that would lower their score in his head. Patton was trying to stay his optimistic self, but he was suddenly feeling that feeling of dread everyone else was at the thought of a possible two. Logan was calculating the probability of them getting each of the scores with his brain, trying to determine which one they would be most likely to get. Thomas was attempting to clean his mind of any bad thoughts. He had given his best performance yet, so he had to remind himself that even if they got anything lower than a one, he, and everyone else, had still done an amazing job.

  
The announcer spoke up again:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
“One!”

  
It was all very surreal. The feeling of relief and excitement that came off of everyone was amazing. The cheers echoed in the stadium, tears running down the faces of many. Roman and Virgil shared a kiss, as did Patton and Logan. They were all just so happy. Nothing could ruin that moment.

  
They had did it.

  
They had gotten a one at the most important competition of the season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it’s over! Thanks again for reading!


End file.
